The Charming Dead
by mdaCHARMED14
Summary: All four sisters & they have their powers. The sisters travel to Atlanta for help to vanquish a powerful demon. When they get to Atlanta, the apocalypse had already began. As they try to escape Atlanta, they meet Rick's group. The Elders take ALL Whitelighters from Earth and going under lock-down, leaving the Charmed Ones on their own w/the only option to SURVIVE & FIGHT.
1. Prologue-Story Information

Prologue: Charmed/Walking Dead Crossover - The Charming Dead

All four sisters are in this. Leo is some of it.

Powers:

Prue Halliwell - Telekinesis & Astral Projection

Piper Halliwell - Molecular Immobilization & Molecular Combustion

Phoebe Halliwell - Premonition, Levitation, & Empathy

Paige Matthews-Halliwell - Orbing, Telekinetic Orbing, Glamouring (will be discovered), Healing (will be discovered), Sensing (will be discovered), Photokinesis (produce light)(will be discovered).

Any other character in this story will most likely be mortal.

Description: The sisters travel to Atlanta for help with a powerful demon when the apocalypse starts and the Power of Four barely exists due to the bond pf the sisters not be strong enough, Paige is new to the craft but is getting the hang of orbing and telekinetic orbing. They meet Glenn and Rick when trying to escape a big herd of walkers. When the apocalypse hit, the Elders ground all Whitelighters including Leo, up in the heavens with them leaving their charges unprotected, but why?

Characters Being Kept Alive: N/A

I am using scripts from the Walking Dead. But adding lines and stuff for Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige.

I DO NOT OWN THE WALKING DEAD OR CHARMED. ALL RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP GOES TO THE MAKERS OF WALKING DEAD AND CHARMED. THIS IS A SIMPLE CROSSOVER FOR BOTH SHOWS.

Feel free to comment any ideas, you may think that will help improve this story. All improvement ideas are totally ok and I will not get mad by and opinions, because they are your opinions not mine and your thoughts so I can't do anything about it. But you are allowed to comment any improvements if you want, totally up to you.


	2. Secrets Gone By

Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige arrived in Atlanta, a few days before the apocalypse started to get help with a very powerful demon. Demons and Warlocks had been scarce since everything started, so were Whitelighters, Witches, and other magical creatures. Usually the magical community would go to them for help, but not this time.

The sisters were in an abandoned house in Atlanta. Prue was on guard keeping a look out for walkers or other people. Piper was lying down and Phoebe and Paige were talking.

"Do you think its weird that we haven't seen in demons or warlocks lately?" Phoebe asked Paige.

"Kinda, I mean the magical community didn't even come to us for help." Paige said.

"I know, it could be that with the whole walker deal, they may have gone into hiding or cloak themselves somehow to drop from the 'demon radar'." Phoebe said.

"You both might be right, with the outbreak, witches might be in hiding and no one to save them and demons could take advantage and kill them giving evil an upperhand." Piper said while sitting up from the couch.

"Did we wake you?" Phoebe asked.

"No, I was having trouble falling asleep. I was thinking about Leo." Piper said.

"Oh honey, I'm sure the Elders had a good reason of taking him up there." Paige said.

"I just worry that I won't see him again." Piper said.

Phoebe hugged Piper and had premonition. _A herd of walkers surrounded the house and started getting inside. Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige ran upstairs. But Piper tripped and a walker bit her leg and she tried freezing them but more surrounded her and devoured her._ "Phoebe what's wrong?" Piper asked.

"I had a premonition, walkers got in the house and we ran upstairs but you tripped and a walker bit you and then more surrounded you and devoured you." Phoebe said getting a little teary eyed.

"Ok, Paige go tell Prue what Phoebe saw and tell her were packing to leave." Piper told Paige.

"Ok." Paige said.

Paige ran to Prue while Phoebe and Piper started packing.

Prue heard footsteps behind her and turned around to an uneasy Paige. "Paige, what's wrong?"

"Phoebe just had a premonition." Paige said.

"Ok, tell me what she saw." Prue said getting a worried look on her face.

"She saw walkers, lots of them. They surrounded the house and got in and we ran upstairs but Piper tripped and walker bit her leg and more surrounded her, but she tried freezing them but more kept coming and overpowered her, ending the premonition with Piper being devoured." Paige said nervously.

"Oh my god, ok go tell them to start packing that we'll leave as soon as we can." Prue said.

"They already started packing." Paige said.

"Good." Prue said.

Paige ran back to Piper and Phoebe. "Prue said that we'll leave as soon as we can."

"As long as I don't get devoured by walkers, I should be fine." Piper said.

"Oh honey, don't worry we won't let anything happen to you." Phoebe said.

"Yeah, we're your sisters." Paige said. "Well I'm your half-sister, but I still like to think you guys are my full sisters, not half-sisters."

The three of them hugged and resumed packing.

* * *

Rick rides into the city and along the streets. He sees that the streets are abandoned and there is trash everywhere. Rick leads the horse down the street where there are helicopters, cars, and even a tank wrecked along the road. Rick rides past a bus and some of the walkers see him. They get up and start to walk toward him. Rick doesn't panic.

"It's just a few. Nothing we can't outrun." Rick told the horse

Rick rides past them and goes to ride down the street. "Okay, whoa whoa whoa."

He looks up on the tank and sees a dead body that is being pecked at by crows. He rides past the tank and looks up in the air. He sees a helicopter fly past him. Rick starts to ride in the direction of the helicopter, but when he turns at the corner, there is a lot of walkers. All of them shuffle after Rick and he rides back down the street he came from. He then comes across another huge group of walkers. Rick struggles to get away but he's trapped. Rick falls off the horse and starts to crawl away from it. Some of the walkers eat the horse and Rick realizes that he has dropped his gun bag. He crawls underneath the tank while walkers still try to catch him. They crawl under the tank and Rick shoots some of them with his Colt Python.

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry." Rick prepares to use the last bullet on himself, but sees the hatch above him. He crawls up and shuts it. He sits down and starts to breathe heavily. He then sees a dead soldier in the tank. He takes the soldier's gun, but he's a walker. Rick uses the last bullet in his Python to shoot him through the head. The sound of the bullet in the enclosed space hurts Rick's ears and it takes him a minute to get his hearing back. He starts to crawl up to the top hatch and looks outside. He sees that the bag of guns is lying in the street way out of his reach. The rest of the walkers start to converge on the tank to get at him. Rick shuts the hatch before they can get him. Rick sits in the tank and seems very disheartened. He notices that the soldier's gun is loaded and thinks about taking his own life. Just then, the radio in the tank starts to make static sounds. A voice on the other end starts talking.

"Hey, you. Dumb ass. Hey, you in the tank. Cozy in there?" The voice says.

Rick realizes that he isn't alone.

* * *

Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige are driving through when they see a lot of walkers eating something and some trying to get into a wrecked tank. The walkers don't notice the car that arrived a couple feet back.

"Ok woah, what the hell is going on?" Prue said.

"I don't know, but it looks like they are focused on eating soemthing and that tank." Piper said.

"Must be from the gunshots we heard." Phoebe said.

Paige sees a hoof sticking out of the group of walkers. "Um, I think those walkers are eating a horse."

"How can you tell?" Phoebe asked.

"Well there's a hoof sticking out of that group." Paige said. This time Prue and Piper noticed it too.

"Oh, I think you're right." Piper said.

Prue notices a gun bag sitting near the walkers. "Look a gun bag, there must be guns in it."

"We could use that." Phoebe said.

"But we have our powers." Piper said.

"And if we use our powers too much it will make us weak or just like Phoebe's premonition where you were devoured while trying to freeze the walkers." Paige said.

"Don't remind me." Piper said, smirking.

"She's right you know." Phoebe said looking at Piper.

"Ok, Paige roll down your window and call for the bag." Prue said.

"Won't they hear me?" Paige asked.

"Yes, but that's why I want Piper to roll down her window and freeze them." Prue said.

"Prue you know I can only freeze the room I'm in." Piper said.

"But our powers grow and I want you to try and freeze them." Prue said.

"I say do it." Phoebe said.

"Fine." Piper said and she rolls down her window and throws her hands up and freezes all the walkers. "I did it."

"Nice, we can celebrate later, Paige roll down your window and call for the bag." Prue said.

"Ok." Paige said and rolls down her window and call for the bag. "Gun bag." The gun bag sitting by the walkers orbs out and the bag's handle strap orbs into her hand and Paige pulls the bag in the car. The walkers unfreeze.

"Got it." Paige said.

"Nice!" Phoebe said.

* * *

The guy that was talking to Rick is watching the sister nearby. He sees the woman in the passenger seat roll down her window, throw her hands up and freeze all of the walkers. He then sees another woman in the back seat roll down her window and hold her hand out and says something and the bag in the street disappears and its handle strap reappears in her hand and she pulls it in the car.

"What the hell just happened?" The guy says.

* * *

Prue puts the car in reverse and drives around the corner and runs into a herd of walkers.

"Oh god, what do we do?" Piper asked.

"I have an idea; Piper when I say so open your door and freeze the herd. Then we'll make a run for that alley." Prue said.

"Ok." Piper says nervously.

Phoebe and Paige grab the bags in the back and get ready to ditch the car.

"Now!" Prue says and Piper opens her door and throws her hands up and freezes the herd.

Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige get out with their bags and make a run for it. They reach the alley and run into the guy who was talking to Rick. The walkers unfreeze and find the car empty and not after the sisters anymore.

"Who and what the hell are you?" The guy asked them.

"Who are you, are you a walker?" Prue asks the guy.

"No and what the hell was that?" The guy asks.

"What was what?" Piper asked.

"You-you did something and made all those walkers stop moving." He said pointing to Piper. "And you-you did something to make that bag disappear from the street and into your hand" The guy said pointing to Paige.

"We're witches." Phoebe said, seriously while glaring at the guy.

"What?" The guy asked.

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**


	3. Guts and Witches

**A/N: I will be using little comedic points that used in Charmed to give this story some more Charmed to it. So for example it will be like if Phoebe says something then another sister might comment something that makes Phoebe sentence funny. Another example to be specific is right under '"What?" The guy said.' Anyways catch ya guys later.**

"You-you did something and made all those walkers stop moving." He said pointing to Piper. "And you-you did something to make that bag disappear from the street and into your hand" The guy said pointing to Paige.

"We're witches." Phoebe said.

"What?" The guy asked.

"We're witches, but I'm a half-witch and half whitelighter." Paige said.

"Half-breed." Piper mumbled.

"I'm so confused." The guy said.

"Well you won't be worried if we don't leave, cause we'll be dead, because those walkers will hear us and chase us and then they'll eat us. Now can we please go, I'm not gonna lose my sisters." Prue said.

"We can't leave, there's a guy stuck in that tank." The guy said.

"Yea we kind of figured that since there's walkers trying to get into it." Piper said.

"Still we can't leave him." The guy said. "What's your names anyways."

"We'll tell you our's if you tell us your's." Phoebe said.

"Ok." The guy said. "Glenn."

"Prue." Prue said.

"Piper." Piper said while turning to look at the herd of walkers still unnoticing them.

"Phoebe." Phoebe said.

"Paige." Paige said.

Glenn stared at them nervously.

"What?" Paige asked.

"I'm still a little on edge about the whole witch part." Glenn said.

"You'll get used to it." Phoebe said.

"I have an idea, call it a longshot." Prue said. "Paige orb into the tank and bring us the man."

"What? Are you crazy? I'm not orbing into that herd." Paige said.

"Its the only chance we got." Prue said.

"No, I have a plan." Glenn said.

* * *

The streets and intersection where the tank is parked are still crowded with walkers. More of them swarm the horse's corpse. Many are leaving the tank to eat the horse's remains. A few still beat on the top hatch.

Rick, still stranded inside, hears the radio broadcasting again.

"Hey, are you alive in there?" Man on radio asks.

At the sound of the voice Rick starts. In the small space he bangs his head against the tank.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick said.

"There you are. You had me wondering." Man on radio says.

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, we can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." Man on radio says.

"We, who's we, are there others with you and is there good news?" Rick asks.

"No and there's only 4 others with me, 4 women." Man on radio asks.

"Listen, whoever you guys are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." Rick says.

"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." Man on radio says.

"Got any advice for me?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." Man says.

"That's it? Make a run for it?" Rick asks.

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. You with me so far?" Man says.

"So far." Rick says.

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" Man says.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick says.

"You don't need too, because one of the women did something to the walkers and made them stop moving, literally and then another one of them said something and the bag disappeared and reappeared in her hand." Man said.

The sisters stood back watching and listening.

"Did he just blurt our secret to that guy?" Phoebe said to Prue.

"Oh yes he did." Prue said.

Glenn was still talking to Rick. "What do you have on you?"

"Hang on." Rick said.

Rick hurriedly checks his hand gun and the one he took from the soldier's corpse.

Rick counts his bullets and goes back to the dead soldier to check his pockets. Rick sees the hand grenade on the shelf and he takes it.

"Yeah. Yeah. I've got a berretta with one clip, 15 rounds." Rick said.

"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." Man on radio says.

"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asked.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." Man says.

"Right." Rick says.

Rick grabs a metal bar off the wall of the tank. Breathing heavily, he opens the top hatch, one walker sees him immediately.

Rick hits him across the face with the bar. The walker groans.

Rick jumps down off the tank, lands hard on his ankle. "Ah!"

Rick runs up the street toward the alley, shooting the walkers who are closest to him. He runs up onto the alley, shooting as he goes. Veers left into the face of the man on the radio, his gun still up and pointing at the man and women.

"Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on!" Man says.

"Neither are we, let's go." Piper says.

They move back into the alley pulling a tall chain link gate closed behind them.

"Back here!" Man says.

The gate, unlatched, opens enough for walkers to follow through. Rick continues to shoot the nearest one while he, the man and the women run further down the alley. Piper throws her hands and freezes the oncoming walkers, they freeze and so do Glenn and Rick.

"Um Piper." Paige said looking at a frozen Glenn and Rick.

"Oh, here let me fix that." Piper says and waves her hand at Glenn and Rick and they unfreeze.

"Come on! Come on!" Glenn says.

The walkers unfreeze.

The man starts climbing a fire escape ladder that leads almost straight up to the top of the building. Rick, out of ammo, looks around at the walkers closing in on him and the sisters.

"We all won't make it up in time." Prue said.

"She's right." Phoebe said.

"Paige orb us to the top, while they climb to the top." Prue said.

"Ok." Paige says as she, Prue, Piper, Phoebe grab hands.

"What are you doing? Come on!" Glenn says.

"Go on, we'll meet you up there." Piper says.

They orb out.

The walkers get even closer to the ladder. "Come on, get up." Man says and Rick climbs up, kicking a few walker hands back from his ankles.

They stop to catch their breath at a utility platform and begin climbing the second ladder to the roof. They reach the roof and find the sisters waiting for them.

Glenn and Rick are panting. "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new Sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?"

"It wasn't my intention." Rick said and looks the women "How did you get up here so fast."

"We told you, we're witches." Prue said.

"You mean magical witches, that stuff is real." Rick asks.

"Yeah. Whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass." Glenn says to Rick.

"What you can believe the dead walking around but you can't believe in magic, sheriff." Prue said.

"Rick. Thanks." Rick said to Glenn. "Its just that its hard to believe that stuff is real, I've never seen it before, I only thought it was make-believe. You know, wart noses, black hats, flying broomsticks." Rick said to the sisters.

"Glenn. You're welcome." Glenn said to Rick.

"Its nice to see that even in the apocalypse, the typical witch sterotype still exists." Phoebe said.

Rick puts the Beretta into Glenn's backpack while Glenn is looking down. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you." Rick said to Phoebe.

"Its ok, we've heard it a lot in the past few years. From innocents, a couple ex-boyfriends, ourselves, I could go on." Phoebe said, giggling. Earning a giggle from Paige and Piper and a smirk from Prue.

"Well, wasn't that fun." Prue said.

"You still haven't told me your names." Rick said.

"Oh sorry about that. I'm Prue." Prue said.

"I'm Piper." Piper said.

"I'm Phoebe." Phoebe said.

"I'm Paige." Paige said.

"How do you know each other." Rick asked.

"We're sisters, Halliwell sisters." Piper said.

"Except for me, I'm there half-sister, Paige Matthews." Paige said. "But our mom was a witch and she fell in love and had a baby with her whitelighter, and they loved me so much to give me up due to the 'whitelighters and witches not being allowed to fall in love' law."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that." Rick said knowing how it must feel to be given due to a few cases he had been involved in that dealt with adoption and all."

Glenn walks over and looks at the walkers at the bottom of the ladder. "Oh no."

Rick, Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige go over to Glenn and look down.

Walkers have mobbed the bottom of the ladder and threaten to overwhelm it.

"Oh my god." Piper says.

"What do we do?" Paige asks.

Glenn and Rick look around the rest of the way. The walkers are bit spread out in another alley and some clear spots but not many.

"The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy." Glenn said.

They've scaled the ladder and walk across a bridge between buildings.

"Are you the ones that barricaded the alley?" Rick asked.

"Somebody did – I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through." Glenn said.

"Well it wasn't us, we just arrived in Atlanta as well. We ended up having to leave our last base." Prue said.

"Is it alright if I ask why?" Glenn said.

Phoebe joins the conversation. "Well, I had a premonition..."

"A premonition? What's that?" Rick asks, overhearing what they were talking about.

"Whenever I touch something, I'll get a vision and the vision can either be of the future or the past and the premonition I got at our last base was of the future. The house we were in was overrun by walkers and we ran upstairs, but Piper tried to freeze them but more surrounded and overpowered her, then they devoured her."

"Ughhh, don't remind me of that." Piper said.

Glenn opens a hatch that leads down into the building they are on top of.

"Back at the tank. Why'd you stick your neck out for me?" Rick asked.

"Call it foolish, naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you." Glenn said.

Rick, Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige followed Glenn down into the building and Glenn closed the door behind them. They look all around them to make sure it's clear before they hurry through the building and out into another alley.

"I'm back. Got a five guests plus four geeks in the alley." Glenn said into the walkie-talkie.

Two men in riot gear come out of the other building with baseball bats. They run up and beat down the walkers before anyone can be bitten.

"Let's go!" Glenn said.

"Morales, let's go!" Man said.

The two in riot gear run in, close the door behind them. A woman angrily pushes Rick and the sisters back into a stack of boxes and shoves a gun in their faces. A second woman is in the room, too.

"You son of a bitches. We ought to kill you." Woman said.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." Morales said.

"Come on, ease up." Jacqui said.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid assholes." Andrea said.

"Andrea, we heard one gun shoot not five, so don't be harsh on the ones who didn't shoot." Jacqui said.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off." Morales said.

Andrea doesn't. Rick and the sisters lean as far back as they can but doesn't give her any more reason to shoot them.

"Well, pull the trigger. Shoot them all." Morales said.

She finally pulls away from them.

"We're dead –all of us –because of the five of you." Andrea said, crying.

"I don't understand." Rick said.

"What do you mean?" Piper said.

Morales grabs Rick and Piper by the arm and leads them along.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." Morales said.

"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog said.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea said.

"Get the picture now?" Morales said.

While talking they've led Rick and the sisters through to the front of the building, a department store. Outside the plate glass windows were geeks banging and pushing into them, more geeks behind them pushing, too. Rick and the sisters are stunned.

"Oh God." Andrea said.

"This is bad." Phoebe said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Andrea said.

A few of the walkers have rocks. Cracks begin to appear on the outside doors. The survivors back away and get more out of sight.

"What the Hell were you guys doing out there anyway?" Andrea said.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick said.

"We were just driving through for a little bit of supplies and a place to crash, thats when we ran into Glenn and Rick." Prue said.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter." T-Dog said.

"You were chasing a hallucination. Imagining things. It happens." Jacqui said.

"You don't wanna stay in the city, its a really bad place to stay." Morales said.

"Good to know." Piper said.

"I saw it." Rick said insistently.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" Morales said.

"Others? The refugee center?" Rick said.

"Refugee center, what refugee center?" Paige asked.

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." Jacqui said.

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." T-Dog said.

A gun was firing.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" Andrea said.

"What is that maniac doing?" Jacqui said.

"Wait, who's Dixon?" Prue said.

"You'll see." Jacqui said.

"Come on, let's go." Glenn said.

* * *

Up on the rooftop a man has a scoped rifle pointing down. He aims and fires.

Everyone runs up the stairs as fast as they can. Dixon continues to shoot. Morales is the first to come out of the stairwell.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" Morales said.

Dixon laughs and fires the gun.

"Oh Jeez." Andrea said.

"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah!" Dixon said. He jumps down off the low wall that runs around the roof. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got, man!" T-Dog said.

Dixon laughs.

"And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill." T-Dog said.

"Hey, bad enough I've got this taco bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." Dixon said.

"That'll be the day"? You got something you want to tell me?" T-Dog said.

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it." Morales said.

"No." T-Dog said.

"All right? It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." Morales said.

Rick and Phoebe look questioningly at Glenn. Glenn shakes his head and motions for Rick and Phoebe to leave it alone. Phoebe shakes her head at Glenn, motioning that she's about to do something.

"You want to know the day?" Dixon said.

"Yeah." T-Dog said.

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "YO." It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Dixon said.

"Mother –" T-Dog said. T-Dog throws a punch, Merle blocks it and they start fighting.

"Hey, come on Merle, that's enough." Morales said.

"Come on." Andrea said.

"Hey, get off him." Piper said.

Everyone is shouting.

"Dixon!" Andrea said.

Paige runs over to them and grabs Merle's shoulder and he backhands her across the face. She flies back into a pipe.

Rick jumps over a pipe to help T-Dog and Merle clocks him with a hard left. Rick flies back and down to the ground back over the pipe. Dixon plants a heavy shove into T-Dog's chest then picks him up and punches him. T-Dog's head bangs into the pipe.

"Stop it!" Jacqui said.

"Dixon, get off him!" Andrea said.

Prue, Piper, and Phoebe run over to help Paige. "Paige!" Piper yelled.

Paige starts sitting up as Prue is the first to arrive. Prue notices that Paige has a red mark on the side of her face.

"Oh my god." Phoebe said.

"That bastard." Prue said.

T-Dog lands on a metal pipe before he falls to the rooftop. Dixon starts kicking him then punching him.

"Dixon you're gonna hurt him." Andrea said.

"Merle cut it out!" Morales said.

Rick, still dazed, collects himself. Phoebe begins to boil with anger. T-Dog is on the ground. Merle sits on top of him and beats him with his fists. Morales tries to break it up but Dixon knocks him away. Merle pulls out a revolver cocks it and points it at T-Dog's face.

"No no no. Please please." Andrea said.

Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige walk over to them.

Rick can see the mark left on Paige's face from where Merle backhanded her.

It begins to thunder.

T-Dog whimpering. Merle spits on T-Dog's chest and rubs it in. T-Dog grunts. Merle stands up with his gun still aimed at T-Dog.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em." Merle says.

Jacqui and Glenn have helped T-Dog recover. Andrea and Morales are grouped with them, along with the sisters. Morales lifts his hand.

"Oh, come on." Andrea said to Morales.

"You're not seriously gonna vote him leader are you?" Prue said. "Especially not after what he to T-Dog and Paige, I can't believe this."

"All in favor? Yeah, that's good." Merle said. "What, you got a problem with me, sister?"

"Yea I do and don't call me sister, because I sure as hell am not related to you in anyway." Prue said.

"Look, I'm sorry that I backhanded your friend, but I have a gun so if I were you I wouldn't push your luck." Merle said.

Glenn and Jacqui raise a hand. Jacqui's middle finger is pointed. Andrea raises her hand last.

"Yeah. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" Merle said.

"Yeah." Rick said. Phoebe kicks Merle right in the stomach. Merle drops his gun and goes flying into a pipe. Merle stands up and looks around, but Rick hits him in the jaw with the butt of Merle's rifle. He drops to the ground once more, stunned but not out. Rick uses his handcuffs to attach Merle to the pipe on the roof.

Merle grunts. Rick pulls Dixon up by his shirt and gets in his face.

"Who the hell are you people?" Merle said looking at Rick then Phoebe.

"Officer Friendly." Rick said.

"I'm a witch." Phoebe said. "And so is my sisters."

Rick reaches around takes Merle's gun and removing the clip he turns back to Dixon.

"Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no Niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart. And we definately don't backhand women." Rick said.

"Screw you, man." Merle said.

"Guess what Merle Dixon, you heard Phoebe my sisters and I are witches. I can move things with my mind and I can easily toss you off the roof and down to the walkers with the wave of my hand, so you who better watch your luck." Prue said.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick said.

"Yeah? Well screw you twice." Merle said.

Rick cocks Merle's gun and points it at Merle's temple.

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense." Rick said.

"Yea, you should be polite, especially to a witch with the power of telekinesis." Prue said.

"You wouldn't. You're a cop." Merle said. "What about you sweetie, good or evil?"

"Good and what did I tell you don't give me nicknames." Prue said. "And besides I'm pretty sure that I'm not breaking the rules if I vanquish you to save the lives of more innocents. Its called the one for the many." Prue said.

Rick lowers the gun. Prue still stands, ready to use her powers.

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick said.

"I'm trying to keep my sisters safe and any innocents that we find, but get in my way and you'll wish you didn't." Prue said.

Rick sees something on Dixon's face. He pats Merle down. Rick finds a white powder in Merle's pocket. He looks closely at Merle's face.

"Got some on your nose there." Rick said. He flicks Merle's nose for emphasis.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle said.

Prue has gotten annoyed from listening to Merle talk and walks over to see how T-Dog and Paige are doing.

"How's Paige?" Prue asked.

"Fine, but the mark is gonna be there for a bit." Jacqui said.

"First, the zombie apocalypse and now I have a mark on my face, what next?" Paige said.

"Don't worry Paige, Merle is handcuffed to the pipe over there, he won't be able to you hit you anymore, I won't let him." Prue said. "What about T-Dog, is he gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, he'll pull through but he's gonna be sore." Andrea said.

Merle laughs. Rick walks to the side of the building. He tosses the packet into the air off the side.

"Hey! What are you doing? Man that was my stuff! Hey!" Merle yells and then grunts. "If I get loose, you'd better pray –yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?"

"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick said.

"Do you hear me, you filthy pig?!" Merle yells.

"Hey Merle, why don't you leave him alone." Phoebe said.

"What are you gonna do, turn me into a toad?" Merle says and laughs.

"I could do a lot more, wanna see?" Phoebe said and follows Rick.

Rick walks to the wall and flexes his hand in pain. He stops when Morales and Phoebe join him.

"You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?" Morales said. "And what about pretty lady, where you from, definately not from Atlanta either."

"Up the road a ways." Rick said.

"My sisters and I are from San Francisco." Phoebe said.

"Well, Officer Friendly, from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city." Morales said.

"May I ask, what brought you all the way to Atlanta?" Morales asked.

"You may, so as you know my sisters and I are witches. We vanquish demons and warlocks on a daily basis, well we did. Anyway we had to get help with a powerful demon, so we flew to Atlanta, that's when this all started, luckily airlines were running at the time. So we got here and the rash amounts of cannibalism were occuring and the city fell, we decided to find somewhere out of the city to stay. My sister and I found a house, we stayed there for 1 week. That when I had a vision and we were attacked by walkers a lot of them and they devoured Piper and we decided to leave and that's when we ran into Glenn." Phoebe said.

The sky rumbles with thunder again. Walkers in the streets below are moaning.

Morales, Rick, and Phoebe look out at the streets full of walkers. Andrea and Jacqui are looking over the side, too.

"God, it's like Times Square down there." Andrea said.

"How's that signal?" Morales said.

"Like Dixon's brain –weak." T-Dog said.

Dixon gives T-Dog the finger.

"Keep trying." Morales said.

"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." Andrea said.

Looking at Rick and Phoebe, Andrea walks angrily away.

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream." Morales said.

"Then she's right. We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out." Rick said.

"We better come up with something or we're gonna be stuck here." Phoebe said.

"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear." Merle said. "Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey, Honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs; we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway." He says to Andrea.

"I'd rather." Andrea said.

"Rug muncher. I figured as much." Merle said. "What about you cupcake?" He says to Phoebe.

"No thanks." Phoebe said.

"Okay, what about your sisters. Do they wanna get it on with Mr. Merle Dixon." Merle said looking towards Prue, Piper, and Paige.

"I don't think so." Prue said.

"Seriously you backhanded me and now you want sex, what is wrong with you?" Paige said.

"I bet you do, but I'm married." Piper said.

"Can't blame a guy for asking." Merle said.

"The streets ain't safe." Now there's an understatement." Morales said.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick said.

"That sounds like a possibility." Phoebe said.

"Oh man. Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?" Morales asked.

Glenn scans the alley where a few random walkers wait.

"No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are." Glenn said.

"Maybe not. Old building like this built in the twenties. Big structures often had drainage tunneled into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." Jacqui said.

"How do you know that?" Glenn asked.

"It's my job – was. I worked in the city zoning office." Jacqui said.

"Nice." Phoebe said.

* * *

Down inside the building Jacqui, Andrea, Morales, Glenn, Rick, Phoebe, and Prue peer down the steep stairwell.

"This is it? Are you sure?" Morales asked.

"Is it safe?" Prue asked.

"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?" Glenn said.

They all look at Glenn.

"Oh. Great." Glenn said.

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea said.

'No, you won't. Not you." Glenn said.

"Why not me? Think I can't?" Andrea said.

"Guys this isn't the time to argue?" Phoebe said.

"I wasn't –" Glenn said.

"Speak your mind." Rick said.

"Look, until now I always came here by myself– In and out, grab a few things –no problem. The first time I bring a group – Everything goes to Hell. No offense. If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine– But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person and a witch" Glenn says. "–not you either." He said to Rick. "You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass." "And you've got the only other gun, so you should go with him." He says to Andrea.

"Ok what about me, I can move things and if you get into trouble then I can send whatever the danger is, flying." Prue said.

"No, I'd rather you stay and watch the doors too. Your powers would be a great defense on those doors." Glenn said.

"Fine." Prue said.

"You be my wingman." Glenn says to Morales. "You be my wingwoman or wingwitch." He says to Phoebe. "Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry."

"Okay." Jacqui says.

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." Rick said.

Rick reassures Glenn with a pat on the shoulder. Glenn, with a flashlight in his mouth, goes down first, Morales goes in after Glenn and Phoebe goes in last.

They turn their flashlights down the tunnel. Glenn and Morales follow the tunnel looking for the sewer connection.

A rat squeaks. "Dah!" Glenn says.

* * *

Rick, Andrea, and Prue enter the sales room floor where the walkers are at the plate glass doors.

The walkers bang against the door and are growling.

"Sorry for the gun in your faces." Andrea said.

"People do things when they're afraid." Rick said.

"Don't worry about it, I would've done the same if it were me, especially to protect my sisters." Prue said.

"Not that it was entirely unjustified. You five did get us into this." Andrea said.

"Rick was the one shooting not me or my sisters." Prue said, smirking.

"If I get us out, would that make up for it?" Rick said.

"No, but it'd be a start." Andrea said.

"Next time though, take the safety off. It won't shoot otherwise." Rick said.

"Oh." Andrea said.

"Is that your gun?" Rick asks.

"It was a gift, why?" Andrea said.

"That's a nice one." Prue said.

"Thanks and how do you know its a 'nice' one." Andrea said.

"My ex-boyfriend was an inspector, he taught me a bit about guns and what guns were the best. Your's is a Smith & Wesson 3913, best known for accuracy and reliability." Prue said, proving she knows about guns.

Rick puts his hand out, Andrea gives it to him. He pushes up on the side. "Little red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it." Rick says.

"Good to know." Andrea said. "So you said your ex 'was' an inspector, did it happen recently."

Prue knew what Andrea meant. "No, it happened three years ago. My sister and I were up against a demon and Andy wanted to help fight it. I told him to stay away, but he wouldn't listen and when the demon attacked, he burst through the door and the demon killed him. Andy saved my sisters lives and my life. But he was a protector of the innocent and he died doing his job." Prue said, getting teary-eyed.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Andrea said.

"Thanks." Prue said.

* * *

Only T-Dog, Merle, Piper, and Paige are up on the roof. T-Dog leans against the low wall to take advantage of the little shade it provides. Dixon is leaning against the pipe he's handcuffed to. Piper and Paige are sitting on the rooftop against the low wall that T-Dog is on.

"Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine." T-Dog said.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us. Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy." Merle says and spits.

"I hate to say it T-Dog, but I don't think you're gonna get anyone and I'm starting to get a headache too." Piper said.

"Why don't you pull your head out your ass, Merle? Maybe your headache will go away." T-Dog said.

Merle chuckles.

"Try some positivity for a change, damn." T-Dog said.

"I don't think positivity is a choice right now, we're in the apocalypse. I think negativity is the best right now. I mean come on everything that has happened today has been a negative event. The walkers at the sales room doors, me getting backhanded, T-Dog getting beat up, no one responding on the radio thing." Paige said. "We should take the oppurtunity and enjoy some silence."

"I'll tell you what. You get me out of these cuffs and I'll be all "Sammy Sunshine" positive for you. Hey, see that hacksaw over there in that tool bag? Get it for me, hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things." Merle said.

"So you can beat my ass again? Or call me a nigger some more?" T-Dog said.

"Did no one hear me, why do I even bother?" Paige said, annoyed.

"Don't worry Paige, I heard what you said and you're right." Piper said.

"Thanks, sis." Paige said, hugging Piper. Piper hugs Paige back.

"Come on now. It wasn't personal. It's just that your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix. That's all. It don't mean we can't… work together, parley, as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved. So… about that hacksaw –" Merle said.

"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there, too so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up, huh?" T-Dog said.

"Huh." Merle said.

Piper sees a shape near a pipe on the roof. The shape is in the form of a man, its Leo.

Piper gasps. "Paige, do you see him?"

"See who?" Paige asks, confused.

"Its Leo!" Piper said.

"Leo?" Paige said, still confused. "Where, I don't see anything."

"Over there by that pipe." Piper points to the pipe where she sees Leo.

"Piper, I don't see anything." Paige said. "I'm sorry."

T-Dog can see the look on Piper's face. "Its just a hallucination."

"What?" Piper said.

"The look on your face, that's the look you get when see something that isn't there. Happens a lot these days. We all do it, we all see stuff that's not there, the apocalypse makes you do it. Just like Jaqcui said." T-Dog said.

"No I saw him, I saw Leo. I know I did." Piper said.

"Leo? Who's Leo?" T-Dog said.

"Leo is her husband, the Elders took all whitelighters up there" Paige points to the sky. "And went under lockdown, Piper has been worried that she is never gonna see him ever again." Paige said.

"Like he said, a hallucination. That what the apocalypse does, preys on your hopes and fears and makes you see them, imagine them, makes you go crazy." Merle said, laughing.

"Oh shut up, we don't wanna hear your mouth anymore." Paige said.

"I saw him, he was there." Piper said, under her breath, getting teary-eyed.

"It will be okay Piper, the Elders can't you and Leo apart forever. You were meant to be together." Paige said, pulling Piper into a hug.

* * *

Down in the subbasement with Glenn and Morales are still exploring.

A door clangs. Glenn comes into the tunnel with Morales behind him. Their flashlights startle more rats. The rats squeak. The tunnel ends with a heavily barred gate between them and the rest of the tunnel.

"Yeah, we've got ourselves a sewer tunnel. Jacqui was right." Morales said.

"Yeah, you're right." Phoebe said.

Glenn pulls on it but there is no give. "Can we cut through it?"

"If we had a blowtorch and half a day, sure. Dale's hacksaw sure as Hell won't do it." Morales said.

"Too bad, Piper isn't down here. She would be able to blow the gate right out of the way." Phoebe said.

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.

"You saw her other power, which was the power to freeze. What you didn't get to see was her second power, molecular combustion." Phoebe said.

"Molecular combustion?" Morales said, confused.

"The power to blow up things. Piper has used it alot, she's blown up lots and lots of demons, furniture, a few cars, and several walkers." Phoebe said with a bragging/proud attitude.

"Damn, you're sister must be powerful." Glenn said.

"Oh she is, we all are but we're even stronger and more powerful together the Power of Three, well now its the Power of Four since we found Paige." Phoebe said.

Some rats were squeaking.

Glenn, Morales, and Phoebe hear a crunching noise. Their flashlights show a walker that's been eating a rat. There is a growling noise. The walker lunges toward the three of them but he's stopped by the gate. They back away in horror.

* * *

On the sales floor Andrea looks at a necklace with a mermaid shaped pendant. Prue finds necklace that has the name 'Phoebe' on it. *The name pendant is on a gold chain and the name is also gold and the 'P' has three 6 diamonds on it.

The walkers are banging and growling.

"Oh." Andrea said.

"We have to find another way out just in case the sewers are a no go." Prue said.

"Prue's right, but lets hope it won't come to a new plan." Rick said.

Rick looks at the walker's progress on the doors. He sees they haven't broken the windows enough to be dangerous yet. He walks over to the counter to see what Andrea and Prue are looking at.

"See something you girls like?" Rick said.

"Not me, but I know someone who would, my sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons – She's into all that stuff. But mermaids – they rule. She loves mermaids." Andrea said.

"Phoebe's birthday is tomorrow and just because the apocalypse is here doesn't mean she can't have a good day." Prue said.

"Why not take both of them?" Rick said.

"There's a cop staring at me." Andrea said.

"I don't think the cop staring at us will do anything about us taking them, since he told us to take them." Prue said, smirking.

Rick chuckles from what Andrea and Prue said.

"Would it be considered looting?" Andrea said, still not sure whether to take the necklace. Even though she wants to for Amy.

"I don't think those rules apply anymore. Do you?" Rick said.

"You know what, Rick's right." Prue said and she put the 'Phoebe' necklace in her pocket.

Smiling, Andrea puts the necklace in her pocket.

Some glass shatters. The walkers have broken enough glass to reach the inner doors. Rick, Andrea, and Prue take up positions, their guns aimed and ready. Prue is in position to start sending walkers flying. Morales, Jacqui, Glenn, and Phoebe run up behind them.

"What did you find down there?" Rick asked.

"Not a way out." Morales said.

"We need to find a way…and soon." Andrea said.

"I said it earlier, we would need to find another way out in case the sewers didn't work out." Prue said. "I told you we would, nothing ever comes that easy in the apocalypse."

Everyone looks at her.

"What?" Prue said.

* * *

The sky rumbles with thunder again. Everyone is on the roof.

"That construction site, those trucks –they always keep keys on hand." Rick said.

Morales takes the binoculars, looks and then looks down at the street below.

"True and if we got to them, we could escape the city." Piper said.

"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales said.

"You got me out of that tank." Rick said to Glenn.

"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted." Glenn said.

"Can we distract them again?" Rick asked.

"We can try." Phoebe said.

"Right. Listen to him. He's onto something. A diversion, like on "Hogan's Heroes."" Dixon said.

"God. Give it a rest." Jacqui said.

"Dammit Merle, could you please shut up already?" Paige said, getting annoyed fast.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked.

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come." Glenn said.

"What else?" Rick asked.

"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you." Morales said.

"And to think our vanquishing days were over." Prue said, sarcastically.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asked.

"Can't you?" Glenn said.

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea said.

"That would be horrible if we smelt what they did." Phoebe said.

* * *

Back in the department store Rick grabs several pairs of rubber gloves.

"If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold." Glenn said.

Rubber gloves are passed out.

"He's right. Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through." Morales said.

"How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever." Rick said.

"He's right and we needed plan and now we got one." Prue said.

Rick tosses a raincoat to Glenn and Prue.

"You're going with them on the streets." Piper asked.

"Yes, in case they could use some magical backup." Prue said.

Rick and Morales burst through the door into the alley. Glenn holds a bat and stands guard with Prue next to him. They grab a walker body from the ground and rush back inside.

Rick has added a clear plastic face shield to his raincoat and rubber gloves. It's pushed up on his head. He looks around at the others. Rick sighs. He lowers the shield and with a crowbar turns to the fire axe on the wall.

Everyone is wearing rubber gloves and raincoats. They are grouped around the corpse. Rick gets a running start with the axe and swings it but pulls back at the last second. He drops the axe, takes off the head shield and his gloves. He checks the corpse's pockets and pulls out his wallet.

"Wayne Dunlap, Georgia license. Born in 1979." Rick said.

Rick hands the license to Glenn, who then hands it to Prue.

"Poor man." Prue said.

"He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died and a picture of a pretty girl. "With love, from Rachel." He used to be like us –worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne." Rick said.

He replaces the wallet, puts his gear back on.

"One more thing – he was an organ donor." Glenn said.

Rick heaves the axe at the corpse of Wayne Dunlap. Rick grunts.

"Oh!" Andrea said.

"Madre de Dios!" Morales said.

"Oh! God! Gack!" Glenn said.

"Oh my god, I'm gonna be sick." Piper said.

"Oh God, it stinks." Phoebe said.

Rick continues chopping off legs, arms and through the torso.

"Oh God." T-Dog said.

"That is so gross." Paige said.

"Oh!" Andrea said.

Everyone groans from the sight.

"Dios!" Morales said.

"Oh God." Glenn said.

Rick looks ill but he shakes it off and hits again.

Everyone groans again.

Rick hits the corpse again. Rick groans. Rick takes off his shield and holds his nose with the elbow of his coat for a moment. He hands it and the axe to Morales. "Keep chopping." Rick said.

"I am so gonna hurl." Glenn said, groaning.

"You and me both." Prue said, holding her nose.

"Later." Rick said.

Morales chops away.

"Everybody got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." Rick said.

They all stoop down and pick up guts and decayed flesh and organs. Everyone groans.

Rick starts smearing his raincoat, Jacqui helps Glenn do the same, Piper, Phoebe and Paige help Prue with her raincoat and everyone takes turns covering Glenn, Rick, and Prue with the walker guts. Andrea drapes intestines over Glenn's shoulders.

"Oh, God! Oh jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad." Glenn said.

"Think about something else – puppies and kittens." Rick said.

"How can you? The smell is revolting." Piper said.

"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog said.

"I can cross cutting open a walker and messing with its insides off my bucket list." Paige said, sarcastically.

"I so wanna puke." Phoebe said.

Glenn vomits.

"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea said.

"Next time let the cracker beat his ass." Rick said to Jacqui.

"I'm sorry, yo." T-Dog said.

"You suck." Glenn said.

"Do we smell like them?" Rick said.

"Scratch smell like a walker off my to-do list." Prue said, smirking. Phoebe giggled. Paige looked like she was gonna vomit.

"Oh yeah. Glenn. Just in case." Andrea said to Glenn. Andrea gingerly puts her gun into Glenn's front pocket.

"If we make it back, be ready." Rick said.

"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog said.

"Yeah, what are we gonna do with the sleazebag." Piper said.

Rick pulls the handcuff keys out of his pocket and tosses it to T-Dog.

"Give me the axe. We need – we need more guts." Rick said.

"Oh God!" Andrea said.

"Yeah I'm gonna vomit." Paige said. Paige then held her stomach and vomited on the floor.

"PAIGE!" Piper yelled. "That's disgusting."

"Sorry." Paige said, frowning. "I couldn't help it."

* * *

Glenn, Rick, and Prue with bits of corpse body hanging from their necks slowly walk into the alley. Rick is still holding the fire axe, Glenn carries the crowbar, and Prue is carrying a knife but is also ready to use her power when needed. They shuffle down toward the street mimicking the way a walker walks. The few walkers in the alley don't smell their living flesh.

The rest of the group runs up the stairs to the rooftop.

Rick, Glenn, and Prue come to the street. They crawl under the metro bus slowly. Out on the street none of the walkers notice anything unusual.

* * *

The group is now up on the rooftop.

"Hey, what's happening, man?" Merle said.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." Morales said.

"Hey, come on. Talk to me y'all." Merle said.

"Base Camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" T-Dog said.

"Merle, you wanna know what's going on?" Paige asked.

"Yes I do." Merle said.

"Okay, so Rick, Glenn, and Prue are out on the streets, covered in walker guts. They're trying to get to the construction site for a truck." Paige said.

Morales follows Rick and Glenn's progress through the binoculars.

"Can anybody out there hear me?" T-Dog said.

"There." Merle said.

The sky rumbles with thunder, a fourth time.

"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle said.

The sky rumbles with thunder for a fifth time.

T-Dog shows Merle that he has the handcuff keys.

* * *

Rick, Glenn, and Prue continue down the street toward the construction site at an agonizingly slow pace. Covered in walker guts, they pass by the walkers unnoticed.

The sky rumbles with thunder once again. The walkers are growling

"It's gonna work. I can't believe it." Glenn whispers.

"Don't draw attention." Rick said.

"We can't risk blowing our cover, especially not now." Prue whispers.

A walker growls and looks at Glenn. Another walker looks at Prue. Glenn growls at the walker. Prue notices this and growls at the walker in front of her. Both walkers move on.

Up on the roof Morales looks for Rick, Glenn, and Prue through the binoculars.

Rain starts pattering.

"Oh Man." Morales said. He picks up the binoculars and checks on them again.

"I don't want to sound all panicky but what happens when the rain washes the guts off Rick, Glenn, and Prue?" Phoebe asked.

Everyone glances at each other, starting to get worried.

* * *

Glenn, Rick, and Prue slowly shuffle along. They are still half a block away from the construction site's security fence.

Thunder crashes in the sky.

On the roof Andrea watches them through the rain, crying.

"It's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick." Morales said.

"Andrea don't worry, I know Prue she'll make it back with Rick and Glenn." Piper said.

Down on the street Rick, Glenn, and Prue continue on in the rain.

There's growling in the street.

"The smell's washing off, isn't it? Is it washing off?" Glenn said.

"What do we do if it does?" Prue said.

"No, it's not." Rick said.

Walkers start to stop their shuffling and begin looking around.

"Well, maybe." Rick said.

"Oh god." Prue said.

Some walkers roar.

A walker attacks Rick; he splits its head open with his axe.

"RUN!" Rick yells.

Prue waves her hand and send several walkers flying into a wall and the heads splatter.

More walkers are groaning.

Rick and Glenn hack their way through the walkers in their way. Prue sends even more walkers flying all around, some splatter and some are not effected. They run to the chain link fence between them and the construction site.

* * *

Up on the roof Morales, Andrea, Jacqui, Piper, Phoebe and Paige stand in the rain watching them run.

"Come on. Come on. Come on." Morales said.

"You can do it Prue." Piper said. "You got this."

"Come on Prue, almost there." Phoebe said.

Rick throws his axe over the fence. He, Glenn, and Prue leap up and over. Behind them the walkers rush forward and pile up on the fence. Rick, Glenn, and Prue tear off their raincoats. Glenn runs for the key board while Rick and Prue turn and start picking off the most aggressive walkers. Rick shoots some with his pistol and Prue sends even more flying to splatter against something.

Gunshots are heard.

Glenn breaks open the key box with his crowbar and grabs the one for the Ferenc cube van.

"Rick! Prue!" Glenn yells.

Glenn tosses the key to Rick; and all three run for the truck. One walker climbs over the fence and runs after them.

Rick starts the engine.

The walker pounds on Glenn's window.

"Go go go go!" Glenn said.

The tires of the truck screech.

Rick backs the truck out, tires squealing. The walker is thrown off but continues to pursue. The crowd of walkers' weight pushes against the gate until it collapses. They push through and chase after them.

* * *

Up on the roof Jacqui, Andrea and Morales watch them drive away.

"They're leaving us." Andrea said.

"What? What?" Dixon said.

"No no no no no. Where they going? Where they going?" Morales said.

"They aren't leaving us. Prue wouldn't leave us, would she?" Piper said looking to her remaining sisters.

"No no, come back." Andrea said.

"Prue would never leave us Piper, you know that." Phoebe said.

The cube van breaks through the construction site fence on the far side. Rick drives it through and around the corner.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. They're all over that place." Glenn said.

"What do we do?" Prue asked.

"Glenn, you need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store –That area? That's what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready. Prue you stay with me." Rick said.

"Okay." Prue said.

"And I'm drawing the geeks away how? I—I missed that part." Glenn asked.

"Noise." Rick said.

Moments later on a deserted street Rick puts the crowbar through the driver's side window of a red sports car. The alarm blares. Glenn and Prue cover their ears and fidget while Rick works quickly.

The car's alarm blares loudly.

Rick uses a screwdriver to hot wire the car.

The car's engine revs.

Moments later Glenn barrels down the road in the red sports car.

The tires of the car screech.

Glenn passes Rick and Prue in the cube van on their way back to the department store.

"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street – Meet us there and be ready." Glenn says into the radio.

The car alarm continues.

"Come on! Let's go, let's go!" Morales said.

"Hey, you can't leave me here!" Dixon yells after them

Andrea, Jacqui, Morales, T-Dog, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige pick up all their bags and run for the stairs.

"I'm not fooling, man! Morales! Hey, man! Don't do this! Come on. Hey, that's my gun. You can't leave me. Don't leave me here, you guys." Dixon yells.

"Morales come on." Andrea said.

"Let's go, come on people you heard Glenn be ready at the store's doors." Piper said.

"We got everything?" Phoebe asks.

"I think so." Paige says.

T-Dog stops at the door while the rest of them run down the stairs. Morales goes back to the door.

"I'm coming!" Morales said. "We've gotta go!" He says to T-Dog.

"Morales! You can't leave me like this, man! Hey, T-Dog. No, man. You can't leave me, man. You can't leave me here – Not like this. You can't man. It's not human. Come on, don't do this." Dixon yells.

T-Dog groans.

"Come on, T. Come on!" Dixon yells.

T-Dog runs back, knocking over Dale's abandoned tool bag.

"Come on, yeah! Yeah! Come on! Co—that's it! Yes! Come on, baby! Come on." Dixon says.

T-Dog stumbles and the key flies out of his hand across the roof right towards a drain pipe.

"T-Dog come on, we need to go now." Phoebe yells.

"Come on." Merle said.

The key clinks. Merle and T-Dog both reach for the key as it bounces around and down the pipe. The key clangs as it goes down.

Morales, Andrea, Jacqui, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige run through the sales floor past the walkers still growling at the doors. The walker bang against the doors.

"Go." Morales said.

"Come on guys, let's go." Paige said.

"Wait a minute!" T-Dog screams. He begins running down the stairs and he's screaming. "Here I come! Don't leave me! Don't leave!"

Andrea, Jacqui, Morales, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige run through to the roll up doors. Jacqui and Andrea grab the pull down chain making ready to raise them. Morales, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige join them and they wait for the signal.

"Okay. Okay. I got it." Andrea said.

"Shh." Morales said.

The car alarm is still blaring.

"What is that?" Andrea said.

"It sounds like a...car alarm?" Piper said.

The car engine is revving.

Outside on the street Glenn drives past the doors then backs up. He waits for the walkers to take the bait. Immediately they turn and start toward him.

The tires screech.

"Come on. Come on." Glenn says.

Walkers crowd around the car. The walkers are growling.

"Get closer. Get closer. Come on. Come on." Glenns says.

The tires begin to screech. Glenn backs up in fits and starts leading the walkers away from the doors. When they are following enough he speeds up, flips the car around and drives forward.

T-Dog runs through the sales floor. Some glass shatters. With nothing left to keep them out, the walkers at the doors swarm through following T-Dog.

Almost completely unnoticed Rick and Prue pull up behind the walkers that are following Glenn. He backs up into position at the pull up doors where Jacqui, Andrea, Morales, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige are waiting.

"Hey, wait for me!" T-Dog yells.

T-Dog dashes through the store with walkers chasing close behind him.

Rick runs to the back of the truck and lifts the door.

T-Dog gets to the room where the others wait. "They're here! Let's go! They're in here!" T-Dog says.

Rick bangs on the store door.

"Let's go!" Andrea says.

"He's here." Piper says.

"Come on." Phoebe says.

"Open the door!" Morales says.

"We've gotta go!" T-Dog says.

"Let's go now!" Paige says.

"Go!" Morales says.

They heave their bags up to Rick and Prue. They toss them into the back and Rick gets back into the driver's seat and Prue gets back into the passenger seat.

The walkers are growling.

T-Dog throws himself up into the truck. A crowd of walkers comes out through the hallway and to the truck.

"I'm in!" Morales said.

Rick hits the gas while Morales lets down the back door.

The truck engine revs.

Rick drives the truck down the highway back toward the camp. Morales comes up and switches with Prue, who goes back to check on her sisters. Rick looks back at the others, puzzled. Morales looks at T-Dog who is grimacing in pain. Andrea and Jacqui exchange a look.

"I dropped the damn key." T-Dog said.

"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asks.

"Yeah, where is Glenn?" Phoebe asks.

The red sports car races south down I85

The car alarm is blaring. Some rock music is playing.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah-hoo-hoo!" Glenn yells.

 **STAY TUNED FOR "TELL IT TO THE FROGS"!**


	4. Tell It To The Witches

**A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed Guts and Witches and I hope you are enjoying the story and haven't given up on me. I know I have other stories that you guys want me to write chapters for and I know I want to write chapters for them too, but this story is my main concern, because I really love The Walking Dead and Charmed and this is probably one of the few that might exist or this might be the only one, I don't know. But, I will be writing this one for the time being. Oh I was gonna call this chapter Tell It To The Frogs, like in TWD, but I'm gonna call it Tell It To The Witches instead, because with the arrivals of witches at the camp and you have to pay attention in this chapter to find out why I named the chapter Tell It To The Witches. That's all for now and I'll shut up now, I hope you guys enjoy and here is the chapter.**

Rick drives the Ferenc cube van back to camp as the sun sets.

"Best not to dwell on it. Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back… except maybe Daryl." Morales said.

"Daryl?" Rick asks.

"His brother." Morales said.

The car alarm approaches. Glenn is whooping and hollering.

"Whoo-hoo!" Glenn hollers.

Glenn speeds past Rick and the others on their way out of town.

"At least somebody's having a good day." Morales said.

Piper makes her way up to Rick and Morales.

"Yeah well it won't last long." Piper said.

"What do you mean?" Rick asks.

"I mean with the way the world is now, a good day is something that never lasts long, even if we tried to make it last, something always happens." Piper said.

"You're wrong, good days can happen, even with the way the world is." Morales said.

"Maybe you're right. I just not myself lately without thinking I may never see Leo again." Piper said.

"Who's Leo?" Rick asked.

"My whitelighter husband. The Elders took him and every single whitelighter up there and are under lockdown." Piper said.

"What's a whitelighter and who are The Elders?" Morales asked.

"A whitelighter is sort of like a guardian angel for witches and The Elders, oh don't get me started. Let's just say there a pain in the ass." Piper said.

"Okay." Morales said.

At the hilltop camp, Glenn has already arrived in the Charger. The truck approaches.

Glenn smiles as Rick drives up in the Ferenc cube van. Inside the cab Morales pats Rick on the arm.

"Come meet everybody." Morales said. "That means you too, Halliwitches." He says loud enough for the sisters to hear him.

Morales gets out. Phoebe comes to the front. Rick stays in his seat and rubs his eyes.

"You okay, sheriff?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, I just really want to find my wife and son, that's all." Rick says.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure they're fine." Phoebe said and pats Rick on the arm and gets a premonition.

 _Rick gets out of the truck to meet everybody. The scene changes to a woman and a boy hugging. The boy then notices something, he sees Rick. "Dad!" The boy yelled. He runs up to Rick and they embrace. The woman suprised stands there. Rick sees the woman, he runs to her and they embrace._

"What's wrong?" Rick asks Phoebe seeing that she getting teary-eyed.

"Nothing, I'm okay." Phoebe said. "I'll see you out there." She said and gets out of the truck to join her sisters.

Outside the truck.

Prue, Piper, and Paige stand nearby, quiet and watching everybody reunite. Phoebe joins them.

"Amy." Andrea yelled.

"Andrea! Oh!" Amy said, crying.

"Oh my God!" Andrea said.

"You scared the shit out of me." Amy said.

"Papi! Daddy!" A boy said.

"Hey." Morales said.

"Come here, sweetie." Lori said to Carl.

"Oh my god." Phoebe said.

"What?" Piper said.

"That's the woman and boy I saw in my premonition." Phoebe said.

"What premonition?" Prue asked.

"I was talking to Rick in the truck and I patted his arm and I had a premonition. I saw that woman and boy." Phoebe said pointing to Lori and Carl. "They were embracing Rick."

"And, what's the deal?" Paige asked.

"I think that's his wife and son." Phoebe asked.

"Okay, we should tell them." Prue said.

"No, no I want it to play out just like what I saw in my premonition." Phoebe said.

"Okay then." Prue said.

Morales is holding his daughter and hugging his wife. It reminds Carl of how happy he would be when his dad came home.

"Hey. I told you I'd be back, didn't I?" Morales said.

Shane watches as Lori kneels down before Carl who is upset and crying.

Lori speaks inaudibly to Carl, reassuring him. Carl nods. Shane watches tearfully.

"You are a welcome sight." Dale said and hugs Morales. They laugh.

"I thought we had lost you folks for sure." Dale said.

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asked.

"New guy and new women—they got us out." Glenn said.

"New guy and new women?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, crazy gente ***** just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy and halliwitches! Come say hello." Morales said.

Rick walks forward slowly, a sad unsure look on his face. The sisters walk over from where they were standing.

"The guy's a cop like you." Morales said. "The women said they're witches and they actually have magical powers too. Call it crazy, but its true."

Shane sees Rick, a look of disbelief on his face. Rick looks at Shane as Shane backs up shocked and no sign of happiness. Carl turns and sees his father. Lori turns her head to see what he's looking at. Rick reacts as if he can't believe his eyes.

"Oh, my God." Rick whispers.

Rick and Carl run to each other. Lori runs after Carl.

"Dad! Dad!" Carl yells.

Carl hits Rick with a hug and they both go down on the ground. Rick cries and both of them hug.

"Carl. Oh!" Rick says.

Rick picks Carl up and carries him to where Lori stands looking as if she'd seen a ghost. She is stunned and blinking, her eyes wide open as if she still can't believe them. She grabs Rick and pulls him to her. The three of them hug tightly, crying. Lori tries to understand how he could be alive. She looks up to see Shane with a sheepish smile. A look of disbelief comes to her eyes. Shane looks away but he smiles and tries to be happy. Rick looks around to Shane happy to see him. Shane smiles back at Rick.

The sisters watch the happy reunion. Piper's eyes become watery. She imagines that being her and Leo reuniting. Piper snaps back to reality and sees Leo again.

"Oh my god Prue, Phoebe, Paige. I see him again." Piper says.

"Piper who do you see?" Phoebe asked.

"I see Leo." Piper said, her eyes glaning at some nearby trees.

"Leo? Piper what are you talking about?" Prue said.

"Up on the roof back in Atlanta, she thought she saw Leo. But, T-Dog said it was probably a hallucination." Paige said.

"Maybe she did see him." Phoebe said.

"I don't know. She pointed to where he was, but I didn't see anything." Paige said.

"Or only she is able to see him and we're not." Prue said.

"I didn't think about that." Paige said.

Its nighttime at the camp. There are crickets chirping.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented." Rick says.

Rick is sitting with Carl in his lap. Lori is sitting close, her hands in Carl's hair.

"Fear, confusion – all those things but…" Rick says. "Disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale says.

"They also make bad times better. Also the sad times, the scary times, even the happy times." Phoebe said.

"Spoken like a true advice colummnist." Piper said, smiling. Phoebe smiled back at her.

"Was that what you were before the world was like this." Dale asked.

"Yeah, I helped a lot people. I miss it too, it was a good distraction." Phoebe said.

"A distraction from what?" Dale asked.

"From demon fighting, magic, ex-husbands." Phoebe said.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Rick said.

Carl looks up at his father.

"Mom said you died." Carl said.

Lori lays her hand on Carl's forehead. She doesn't speak.

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." Rick said.

Shane doesn't speak.

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori said.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick said.

"Yeah." Lori said.

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Rick said.

"How bad was that the hospital?" Prue asks.

"There were rows and rows of bodies in the back parking lot." Rick said.

"Glad I wasn't there to see that or else I would of hurled." Paige said.

"Yeah, the smell in the air was really bad too." Rick said.

Paige acts like she is vomiting, then laughs. "I obviously feel sorry that you had to smell that." Paige said.

Rick chuckles and so does Piper and Phoebe.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane said.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick said.

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale said.

"Remember what I said, words can make things better too." Phoebe said.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale said.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog said.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick said.

"But see I was the one who kicked him in the gut and I yelled for T-Dog to hurry or he would've been left, so its my fault T-Dog dropped the key.." Phoebe said. "So its mine."

"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn said.

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog said.

"Like hell if I'm gonna sit back and you guys take the fall, its my fault T-Dog dropped the key. I rushed him." Phoebe said.

"We could lie." Amy said.

"Lying makes it worse." Prue said.

"How about we tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Andrea said. "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's." She said to Lori.

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise—we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"Merle backhanded me across the face and then asked all the ladies except Jacqui for sex. He's a pig." Paige said. "I'm glad he was left behind."

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog said.

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea said.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that. Not that chain, not that padlock. My point—Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." T-Dog said.

T-Dog gets up from the fire.

"I'd rather not rescue Merle, me and him aren't on the greastest of terms. He hit my sister and I won't put up with that." Prue said and getting up from the fire and walking away too.

"I wish I could've orbed Merle's testicles away when I had the chance." Paige said.

"Paige, there will be no talk of testicle orbing in front of the child." Piper says and nods her head in the direction of Carl.

"Yeah, not in front the child's father either." Rick says and with that gets up and walks to his tent with Carl and Lori behind him.

The next morning Prue wakes up in the tent, to find her sisters gone. There are bugs chittering and kids playing. Prue looks at the foot of the bed. Her black shirt and pants and her black leather jacket had been replaced with a pair of black capri pants, a tyrian purple shirt, and a pair of black flats. After she gets dressed she walks out of the tent and into the camp.

"Morning." Rick said as he was talking to Carl.

"Morning." Prue said and continued on her way.

Prue walks up the hill and passes a young woman and her child.

"Hey." Prue said to them.

"Hi." The woman said.

Prue stops by Carol. She is pressing her leather jacket on an ironing board.

"Morning." Carol said.

"Morning." Prue said.

"They're still a little damp. The sun'll have 'em dry in no time." Carol said.

"You washed my clothes?" Prue asked.

"Well, best we could. Scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my old Maytag back home." Carol said.

"That's very kind. Thank you." Prue said, smiling.

Prue catches up to Rick who's walking over to Glenn. He's watching Dale, Jim and Morales siphoning gas, removing parts from the sports car.

"Look at 'em. Vultures. Yeah, go on, strip it clean." Glenn said.

"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, Glenn." Dale said.

"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days." Glenn said.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Rick said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you we might be able to considering most of them have probably been abandoned." Prue said.

Rick pats Glenn on the back and walks over to where Lori is hanging newly washed clothing on a line. Prue walks off as well to continue hunting her sisters.

A woman screams. Prue looks in the direction of the scream, realizing its Phoebe.

"Phoebe!" Prue yells and runs in the direction where the scream came from.

"Mom!" Carl yelled.

"Carl, baby!" Lori said getting worried and scared over her son's life.

Lori runs out the camp, with Rick on her heels and into the nearby woods where Phoebe, Carl, and other children are calling out in alarm.

"It's over there." A man says.

Shane runs toward the commotion, with his shotgun.

"Dad!" Carl said.

"Baby!" Lori said.

"Prue!" Phoebe said.

"Oh my god, Phoebe!" Prue said.

"Mama! Mommy!" A girl says.

"Where's Piper and Paige?" Prue asked, worringly.

"I don't know." Phoebe said.

"Rick!" Morales said.

Rick catches the shovel thrown to him.

"Carl!" Lori said.

"Over here, Boy! Come on, come on." A man said.

"Carl! Baby!" Lori said.

"Mom!" A girl said.

"It's okay. I got him. I got him." Jacqui said.

"Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you?" Lori asked Carl.

"Phoebe, did anything bite or scratch you?" Prue asked.

"No I'm okay Mom." Carl said

"No, I'm fine." Phoebe said. "Oh where are Piper and Paige?" She said.

* * *

In San Francisco, the town is crawling with walkers. There are cars with blood on them, some missing doors or wheels and some with the windows smashed.

At the manor, Paige and Piper orb in.

"Ah, just like we left it." Paige said. "Let's hope it stays that way."

"Okay so what's on the list?" Piper asked.

Paige read from the list. "Uh lets see.. _Food, Drinks, Medicine, Clothes, Hygiene Products, Potion Stuff, Anything Used As A Weapon, and the Book of Shadows._ " She said.

"Let's get packing." Piper said.

Paige went upstairs and Piper walked into the kitchen.

"First things first food." Piper said and walked to the refridgerator. She opened up and quickly closed it. "Pee-yew, that's disgusting." She said from the smell the rotting food and potion ingredients inside the fridge gave off.

She went to the first cabinet and grabbed some coffee and put in her duffel bag. She then checked the next three cabinets and found snack bars, macaroni boxes, zip-loc baggies, paper towels and other food items that could be used at the time. She walked to potion cabinets and opened them up. She grabbed one of the boxes of zip-loc baggies from the duffel bag and grabbed every potion ingredient in the cabinet, one by one and putting each in its own separate bag. Then stuffing them all in the duffel bag. She then continued searching through the kitchen grabbing items like flashlights, batteries, cooking gear, and other things they needed.

Upstairs, Paige had just finished clearing out the medicine cabinet in Prue's bathroom of everything they needed. She then went to Prue's closet grabbing most of Prue's clothes and stuffing them in a duffel bag just like she did for Piper, Phoebe and herself. She put some of Prue's makeup into the bag as well. "Like I always say, you can always look good in an apocalypse." Paige had finished the upstairs and orbed the bags to the foyer and orbed to the attic to get the book and anything up there.

Piper and Paige finished looting the Manor. "Got everything?" Piper asked.

"Yes, I did." Paige said.

"What about potion vials and corks?" Piper asked.

"Be right back." Paige said and orbed out. She orbed back in with a smaller bag that contained lots of vials and corks.

"Now let's go." Piper said. They orbed out and back to the camp.

* * *

The men run under the tin can alarm system and past Jacqui Lori, Carl, Prue and Phoebe. In a small clearing they see a man hunched over a deer carcass. Shane covers him with his gun. The walker growls while he eats. With his back to the group the walker looks like a man as he tears meat away from the carcass and feeds on it. Andrea and Amy run up onto the scene.

Andrea gasps.

The carcass has arrows sticking out of it. Circling the deer the men attract the walker's attention. He turns and growls at Rick. Rick takes his shovel and hits the walker. The walker keeps trying to get up so Morales, Glenn, Rick, Jim and Dale continue to beat on it with their weapons until Dale cuts its head off with his axe.

Prue and Phoebe arrive at the scene.

"Oh my god." Prue said.

"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale said.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim said.

A branch snaps. Footsteps can be heard. The group raises their weapons ready to kill any other walker. Shane raises his shotgun and scans the forest. A man with a crossbow comes around a rock outcrop. Shane lowers his gun, everyone relaxes.

"Oh, Jesus." Shane said.

"Woah, who is that? He is yummy." Phoebe said.

"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this… " The man said kicking the walker. "Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" He said.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale said.

The man walks over to Dale, angry. "What do you know about it old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "On Golden Pond"?" The man says.

"Okay, woah cut it out." Prue said.

The man sighs. "I've been tracking this deer for miles."

He pulls his arrows out of the carcass.

"Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" The man says.

"I would not risk that." Shane said.

"Uh, no. No need for risking, because he isn't bringing it back and then my sisters and the camp residents get sick and die from eating the contaminated meat." Prue said.

"She's right." Shane said, agreeing with Prue.

"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel—about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." The man says.

The head of the walker starts snapping.

"Oh God." Amy said. She and Andrea leave in horror and disgust.

"Oh my god. That's so gross." Phoebe said and left in disgust.

"Come on, people. What the hell?" The man says. He shoots the head with an arrow through the eye. He puts his foot on the head and pulls the arrow back out. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He says.

The man walks to the camp. Rick and Prue watch him, sizing up Merle's brother. Daryl calls out.

"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." Daryl yelled.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane said.

"About what?" Daryl asked.

"About Merle. There was a—There was a problem in Atlanta." Shane said.

"He dead?" Daryl asked.

"We're not sure." Shane said.

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl said.

Rick, Prue, and Phoebe walk over to Daryl and Shane.

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said.

"Go on Rick tell him." Prue said.

"Who are you people?" Daryl asked.

"Rick Grimes." Rick said.

"Prue Halliwell." Prue said.

"Phoebe Halliwell." Phoebe said.

"Rick Grimes, Prue and Phoebe Halliwell you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asked.

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick said.

"Of course that was after I kicked him in the gut, because he backhanded one of my sisters across the face." Phoebe added.

T-Dog comes into the camp with his arms full of firewood.

"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you kicked my brother in his gut and then handcuffed him to a roof and you left him there?!" Daryl said, even more upset.

"Yeah, that's exactly what we're saying." Prue said.

Daryl grunts and throws the rope of squirrels at Rick and Prue. Shane body slams Daryl knocking him to the ground. T-Dog drops the firewood and runs up.

In the Halliwell tent. Piper and Paige are organizing the stuff they brought back. Paige hears something. "Piper, do you hear that?" Paige asked.

"Yeah I do, it sounds like..." Piper said.

"Yelling." Paige said finishing Piper's sentence.

"I was going to say fighting, but that works too." Piper said.

Piper and Paige then run out of the the tent to see what's going on.

Back at the fight.

"Hey." T-Dog said.

Daryl pulls out his knife and goes after Rick.

"Watch the knife!" T-Dog said.

"Daryl, NO!" Prue yells.

Daryl swings the knife at Rick and misses wildly. Prue waves her arm and sends Daryl back a few feet on the ground. Rick gover over to Daryl and punches him in the gut while Shane grabs Daryl behind and puts him in a choke hold.

"Okay. Okay." Shane said.

Rick takes the knife away from Daryl as Shane forces him to the ground.

Piper and Paige arrive at the scene. "What's going on?" Paige asked.

"Daryl got into a fight with Rick and your sisters, because of Merle being left handcuffed on the rooftop back in Atlanta." T-Dog said.

"Oh." Paige said.

"Anyone get hurt?" Piper asked.

"No." T-Dog said.

Shane still has Daryl in a choke hold.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl said.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane says.

"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl said, grunting.

"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Shane said.

Rick kneels down to be face to face with Daryl and looks him in the eye. Prue walks over too.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asked.

"So would I." Prue said.

"Hmm? Mmm. Yeah." Shane said.

Shane lets go of Daryl. Daryl pants.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." Rick said.

"He also backhanded my sister Paige across the face and asked all of the women except Jacqui, to have sex which is totally rude and definately not how you _charm_ a woman or most women." Prue said.

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog said.

"But I was the one who hurried T-Dog and made him drop it." Phoebe said. "He wouldn't have dropped the key if I wouldn't have done hurried him."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." T-Dog said.

Daryl chokes up but pulls himself together.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl said.

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him—with a padlock." T-Dog said.

"It's gotta count for something." Rick said.

"Look I don't like Merle Dixon and I do not want to help him after the way he behaved, but T-Dog chaining the door and everything like he said he did does in fact count for something." Prue said.

Daryl wipes more tears out of his eyes. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him." Daryl asked.

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori asked.

"I'm going back." Rick said.

Lori, angry, goes into the camper. Rick sighs.

"Prue, you'll show him too, won't you?" Piper asked.

"Uh, no. Look I'm sorry Daryl but I'm sitting this one out. I know he is your brother and how it feels it to be in this situation. But I can't forget the things he did back in Atlanta. Not right now." Prue said and walking away with tense anger boiling inside, back to the Halliwell tent.

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige look towards their tent. "What's her problem?" Piper asked.

"I didn't think Prue could be so harsh." Paige said.

"Something has gotten under skin and no way its Merle Dixon." Phoebe said.

"So who's going with Rick and Daryl to save Merle." Phoebe asked. "Rock, paper, scisscors?"

They play the game. Phoebe and Paige have rock and Piper has scisccors. "Oh come on, do it again." Piper says.

"Nope you're going sister." Phoebe said, hugging Piper.

"Besides I don't wanna save him either, not after what he did to me." Paige said.

Rick and Shane are talking when Piper comes up to them. "Yoo-hoo, yeah, hi. I'm the witch that got picked to go help and get Merle." She says.

"Okay." Rick said.

"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" Shane asked.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody. Not you, Shane. Lori least of all." Rick said.

"I'm not saying to hell with my sisters." Piper said.

Rick and Piper walk up the hill to the van.

"Tell her that, Rick." Shane says to Rick. "And why don't you tell your sisters that Piper, especially Prue." He says to her.

Rick and Piper turn back to Shane.

"She knows." Rick said.

"My sisters know as well. They have known that for several years now." Piper says.

Rick and Piper continue on up the hill, Shane following after.

"Well, look, I—I don't, okay, Rick? Piper? So could you just—could you throw me a bone here, guys? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your lives for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane asked.

They've walked up to the cooking fire where Daryl is.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl said.

"Oh no, I did. Douche bag's what I mean. Merle Dixon—the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst." Shane said.

"Oh no, you two better not start fighting again." Piper said.

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst—me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Rick said.

"Rick's right. Merle may be an asshole and a pig, but he is still a human being. I'm a Charmed One, I protect the innocent and I hate to say this, but Merle is still an innocent no matter what he did in Atlanta. If he's human then he's an innocent. We have to save him." Piper said.

"So you, Daryl, and Piper, that's your big plan?" Lori asked.

Rick turns and looks at Glenn.

"Oh, come on." Glenn said.

"You know the way. You've been there before. In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick said.

Glenn looks at Lori and Carl.

"Just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I can be trusted to keep you all safe. Meaning even with powers, walkers could overrun me and whoever is with me, due to drainage of power from extended use." Piper said. "That's why I'm glad Rick asked Glenn to come along."

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men and a witch, huh?" Shane asked.

"Make that four men and a witch." T-Dog said.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl says and huffs.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog said.

"Why you?" Daryl said.

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog said.

"That's five, total." Dale said.

"It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp, especially the witches." Shane said.

"What is not clear to you about drainage of power from overusing them too much." Piper said. "I mean, jeez."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick said. "Thanks to Paige, doing that thing she does and making the bag come to her."

"That's right, the guns." Glenn said.

"Wait, what guns?" Shane asked.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It was sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up, but the sisters arrived and Paige made the back come to her and now we have them. The duffel bag is back at my tent." Rick said.

"It was Prue's idea for Paige to orb the bag to her." Piper said.

"Okay." Rick said.

"Ammo?" Shane asked.

"700 rounds, assorted." Rick said.

"You went through Hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori said.

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl said.

Piper watched this and getting teary-eyed. This family reminds her a lot of her and Leo, minus the witch and whitelighter stuff.

Rick is moved by Carl's plea.

"Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori said.

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him." Rick said.

"What's stopping you?" Lori said.

"I'm not sure. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." Rick said.

Lori doesn't like it but she can't refuse him. Rick goes over to Carl.

"Okay?" Rick asked.

Carl nods yes.

"All right." Rick says.

A tear runs down Piper's right cheek, she quickly wipes it away and wipes her eyes. She didn't want anyone to see her crying, especially at a time like this.

* * *

In the quarry the women are working on laundry.

"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jacqui asked.

"The world ended, didn't you get the memo?" Amy said.

"I miss the way the world used to be. All the noise, crime, scandal. Its better than walkers roaming around. Phoebe said.

Carol looks up and sees Ed. He's sitting on the tailgate of the Cherokee smoking a cigarette, watching them intently. "It's just the way it is." She says.

The women continue with the laundry.

"I do miss my Maytag." Carol said.

"I miss my Benz, my Sat Nav." Andrea said.

"I miss my job as an advice columnist." Phoebe said

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jacqui said.

"I miss electricity and hot water." Paige said.

"My computer… and texting." Amy said.

"I miss my vibrator." Andrea said.

"Ooohhh." Paige said.

"Oh!" Jacqui said.

The women laugh.

"Oh my God!" Andrea said.

Carol looks around furtively. "Me too." She said.

The women laugh even louder.

Ed has gotten up from the tailgate and walked closer.

"What's so funny?" Ed asked.

"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea said.

"Yeah." Amy said.

"Well, that and girl stuff." Phoebe said.

Still smoking Ed walks up behind Carol.

"Problem, Ed?" Andrea asked.

"Nothin' that concerns you." Ed says. "And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." He says to Carol.

Andrea huffs.

* * *

"I've got to tell you, I do not think you should be taking this out on him." Shane said.

Lori doesn't even turn around. "You don't tell me what to do. You lost that privilege." She said.

Shane gets up and follows her.

"Lori, could you just wait up a second? I think we should talk. We haven't had a chance—" Shane says and is cut off by Lori.

"No. No no. That's over too. _You can tell that to the_ _witches_." Lori says cutting Shane's sentence off.

* * *

The four men and witch are in a darkened building. It's the sales floor of the department store they'd been in before.

Rick gets Daryl's attention and points out a walker that's still inside. The walker growls. Daryl gets in close so as not to miss the shot.

"Damn, you are one ugly skank." Daryl said.

"You got that right, that top so does not go with that skirt." Piper said.

Daryl takes the woman walker down with a headshot. The walker thuds and falls. Daryl pulls out his arrow from the walker's head.

* * *

Shane continues to watch Lori and Carl walk up the road. Ed, still standing behind the women, lights another cigarette. Andrea, exasperated, gets up, a wet piece of clothing in her hand.

"Ed, tell you what. You don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here" Andrea says and tosses the laundry at Ed. He catches it and throws it back at her, harder.

"Oh!" Andrea said.

"Ain't my job, missy." Ed says.

"Andrea, don't." Amy says.

"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" Andrea asked.

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what-" Ed says. "Come on. Let's go." He says to Carol.

Carol gets up to follow Ed.

"Phoebe don't." Paige said. Phoebe hears what Paige said, but refuses to do what she says.

"No! Carol stay, you don't have to follow him. You are old enough to make your own decisions." Phoebe said.

"Phoebe's right, I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." Andrea said.

"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now. You heard me." Ed says.

"Carol." Andrea said.

Andrea puts her hand on Carol's shoulder.

"Andrea, please, it doesn't matter." Carol said.

"Are you kidding? It does too matter, he has no right to treat you like this. Telling you what you can and can't do. He's not the boss of you. Come on Carol, stand up to him." Paige said, deciding to join in.

"Hey, shut up witch. Don't be giving her ideas." Ed says.

"Why don't you shut up and leave her the hell alone and don't tell me what to or I'll orb your testicles away. you prick." Paige said, giving Ed the death glare.

Andrea turns back around to face Ed.

"Don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you're some college-educated cooze. All right?" Ed said to Andrea.

Andrea gasped at what he said.

"And I'm not afraid to knock both you witch bitches on your asses too. I ain't scared of either of you." Ed says to Phoebe and Paige.

"Oh yeah, well maybe you should be." Phoebe said.

"Now you come on now or you gonna regret it later." Ed says to Carol.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed? Yeah, we've seen them." Jacqui said.

"And it shows that you are a psychotic bastard. Who smokes and drinks to much, who do you think you are Hank from King of the Hill?" Paige said.

Ed laughs at what she says.

Shane hears their argument and turns back from watching Lori and Carl.

"Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done, talking. Come on." Ed says.

Ed takes Carol by the arm.

"No. No. Carol, you don't have—" Andrea said.

"Carol don't go, you can make your own choices. Don't let this asshole ruin your life." Phoebe said.

Carol mutters something.

"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" Ed says to Carol. Ed then strikes Carol across the face. "You think you can—" Ed says but is cut off.

"Get off her!" Andrea said.

"Come here! Come here!" Ed yells.

"Leave her alone." Paige said.

"Get off her! Get off her!" Phoebe said.

"Get off her! Please! Get off her!" Jacqui said.

Phoebe kicks Ed in the gut and he goes stumbling backwards. None of them notice Shane coming up until he's grabbed Ed and is hauling him away from the women.

"Get off me! Let me go!" Ed says. Ed begins to grunt now.

"Ed?" Carol asks.

"It's okay. It's okay." Andrea said.

"Carol, you're okay now." Phoebe said.

"No!" Carol said.

"Let me go!" Ed yells at Shane.

"Okay, my pleasure." Shane says and throws Ed to the ground and starts beating him with his right fist. Ed tries to shield himself but Shane pulls his hands away from his face and beats him more. Ed loses the wits to fight back.

"It's okay." Amy says.

"Don't worry, you're fine now." Paige said.

"No!" Carol said.

Shane, holding Ed by the shirt front, keeps beating him with his fist until the left side of Ed Peletier's face is swollen cut and bloody. Shane, full of rage, doesn't stop.

The women start yelling at Shane.

"Shane, stop!" Amy said.

"Shane, that's enough. Let him go." Phoebe said.

Carol is crying. Andrea and Jacqui have to hold her back to keep her from running to Ed.

"Just stop!" Amy said.

"Oh my god Shane, stop it now." Paige says.

"Stop it! Stop!" Carol says.

Shane finally stops beating Ed. Still holding on to him he puts his finger in Ed's face.

"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. Do you hear me?" Shane said.

Taking Ed's face in his hand he pulls Ed up closer.

"Do you hear me?!" Shane asks.

Ed slurring, manages to say something. "Yes." That was he could say at the moment.

"I'll beat you to death, Ed." Shane said.

"Ed!" Carol says.

Shane hits him in the face one more time.

"Oh God! No…God!" Carol says, while crying.

As Shane gets up off Ed he kicks him. Shane then grunts.

Andrea lets Carol go and she runs to Ed.

"Ed, I'm sorry. Oh my God. Ed, I'm sorry." Carol says, still crying.

Andrea looks at Shane in shock.

"Oh my God, Ed, I'm sorry." Carol says.

Jacqui, Amy, Andrea, Phoebe, and Paige watch Carol crying over Ed as Shane walks off.

"I'm so sorry, Ed. Ed, I'm sorry." Carol says.

Ed lies on the ground choking on blood and spitting. Ed starts to cough too.

* * *

The four men and witch in the city run up the stairwell. T-Dog cuts the chain that he had bolted to keep Merle safe.

As soon as the chain is loose Daryl kicks the door open and runs out on the roof.

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl yells.

T-Dog, Rick, Glenn and Piper follow him out. Merle doesn't answer and the men and witch run around to the side where Merle was handcuffed.

"No! No!" Daryl said. Daryl is beside himself with grief. Pacing around, he cries and cries out. No one says a word.

"No!" Daryl says.

On the roof is Dale's hacksaw, bloody. Nearby lays Merle's right hand in a puddle, a bloody handcuff still hanging from the pipe.

"Oh my god. He...his hand." Piper says, shocked. "I can't believe he did this to himself, did he not have the patience to wait for us." She says.

Rick looks at Piper with a 'not the right moment face.'

"What?" Piper asked, looking to Rick. "Its the truth."

"No! NO! No!" Daryl cries out. Daryl could feel it inside him, he was worried, confused, angry, scared, nervous, and all of the other emotions that we're finding their way out at the moment.

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**

 **STAY TUNED FOR VATOS!**

 *** _gente - Spanish word for people._ ***


	5. Vatos

**A/N: Hey guys! Chapter 3 is up now 'Tell It To The Witches'. I hope you guys enjoy it and are enjoying the story, I wanted to say that I do changes bits and pieces of storyline to my liking. Such as when Paige orbed the duffel bag to her instead of it being left there in the original, so the whole scene where Glenn gets kidnapped and stuff won't happen, because I can't think up a reason for him to be. I think that is all I have to say for right now. So here is Chapter 4 'Vatos'.**

The bloody hacksaw and handcuffs along with Merle's right hand are all that the rescue party has found. The wind is blowing. Daryl is breathing hard. His crossbow clicks, Daryl shouts.

Daryl raises his crossbow and swings around, aiming it at T-Dog's face. Immediately Rick cocks his gun and puts it to Daryl's head. Piper has her hands up in a freezing stance, as if she were getting ready to freeze.

"Okay guys take it easy." Piper said.

The gun is cocked. T-Dog doesn't flinch and neither does Daryl in the standoff.

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." Rick said.

Daryl, crying, drops the crossbow. T-Dog lets out a sigh. Rick uncocks his weapon and lowers it. Daryl blinks away some tears.

"Oh thank god, I thought you were actually gonna shoot him." Piper said, lowering her hands.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asked T-Dog.

T-Dog hands him one, Daryl uses it to wrap up Merle's hand.

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." Daryl said, sighing.

Daryl gingerly picks Merle's hand up by a finger and examines the cut.

"Ain't that a bitch." Daryl said.

"I'm still shocked and disgusted by the fact that Merle actually cut his hand off." Piper said.

Daryl wraps Merle's hand up carefully and motions to Glenn. He puts Merle's hand in Glenn's backpack. Glenn is mortified.

"He must have used a tourniquet—maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." Daryl said.

Daryl follows the trail of blood. Rick motions to Glenn and Piper. They follow Rick and Daryl while T-Dog collects the dropped tools and Dale's dropped bag. Around a corner they see another doorway into the building. Crossbow aimed Daryl goes through, Rick, Glenn and Piper behind him. Rick has his gun out, ready to shoot. Piper has her hands up ready to freeze or blow up something.

"Merle? You in here?" Daryl calls out.

They go down the stairwell into the building.

* * *

Amy and Andrea walk back to camp with a couple dozen fish on their string.

"Oh, baby. Will you look at that? Hey, check it out." Morales said and laughs. "Ladies…"*

Andrea hands the string of fish to him while Lori applauds and Carol smiles.

"Woah, that's a lot fish. If its not a problem, maybe you could teach me how to fish." Paige asked.

*"because of you my children will eat tonight. Thank you." Morales said.

"Sure, its not a problem Paige." Andrea said, smiling to Paige. "Oh and thank Dale. It's his canoe and gear."

Jacqui high fives Andrea.

Phoebe and Lori were sitting together and talking.

"Mom, look. Look at all the fish." Carl said.

Morales shows them to Lori and Phoebe who both pull away, laughing.

"Thank you." Lori said.

"Whoa." Carl said.

"Yeah, whoa. Where did you two learn to do that?" Lori said.

"Our dad." Amy said.

"It must've been nice having a dad to teach you how to do that." Phoebe said, looking away.

"I'm sorry." Amy said.

"Oh don't be. Prue, Piper, and I grew up without a dad after our mom died." Phoebe said.

"Oh Phoebe, I'm so sorry." Amy said.

"Its okay Amy, you didn't know." Phoebe said. Amy patted Phoebe on the back.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asked.

"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff." Amy said. "If that's okay." She said looking to Lori.

"You won't catch me arguing." Lori said.

Dale walks back into camp.

"Hey, Dale, when's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea said.

"I, uh—I don't want to alarm anyone, But we may have a bit of a problem." Dale said.

"What do you mean problem?" Paige asked.

Shane and Paige get up and walk over. Dale points them toward Jim up on the hilltop, still digging. "There."

"It looks like he's digging." Paige said. "But for what?"

"Who knows." Dale said.

Shane said nothing and continued watching Jim.

* * *

There's blood trail that continuing over a tile floor.

"Merle!" Daryl yells.

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick said.

"Yeah, we don't want a large herd of walkers storming us." Piper said.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out." Daryl said.

"Shh." T-Dog said.

They walk into a kitchen area. Several sterno cans have been lit and are still burning. An abandoned bloody belt lies on the cook top nearby. Blood is splattered everywhere. Rick picks up a flat iron that has been used and left with crusted remains.

"What is that burned stuff?" Glenn asked.

"Skin. He cauterized the stump." Rick said.

"Ouch. That had to hurt. Why couldn't he have just waited for us?" Piper said.

"Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle." Daryl said.

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick said.

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." Daryl said.

They walk over to a window with more blood and a shattered quarter pane.

"He left the building? Why the Hell would he do that?" Glenn said.

"Well I guess Merle is as much of an idiot as I thought he was." Piper said. "Leaving the building is one of the stupidest things to do right now."

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do." Daryl said.

Rick looks out the window and sees a fire escape leading down. There's a bloody towel on the ground nearby.

"Surviving." Daryl said.

"You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?" T-Dog said.

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." Daryl said. "You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard." He said to Rick. "And you couldn't use some of your powers or something to bring him back. If you protect the innocent like you say, then why didn't you bring him back?" Dary said to Piper.

Talking pointedly he walks in close to Rick and Piper. Unflinching Rick argues back.

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?" Rick asked.

"Right now out on the streets with Merle in the condition he's in, he's good as dead." Piper said.

"Why don't you both take a tally? Do what you both want. I'm gonna go get him." Daryl said.

He steps away from Rick towards the window. Rick puts his hand up.

"Daryl, wait." Rick said.

"Get your hands off me! You can't stop me." Daryl said.

"Oh really, wanna bet?" Piper said and threw her hands up, freezing Daryl only.

"Ha. I just did stop you." Piper said to the frozen Daryl.

"Okay come on, unfreeze him." Glenn said.

"Do I have too?" Piper asked. "Can't we leave him frozen for a few more minutes and enjoy some peace and quiet." Piper said.

"Just unfreeze him." Rick said.

"Fine." Piper said and waved her hands in front of Daryl, unfreezing him.

Daryl felt a little off. "Woah how did you get over there?" Daryl asked Piper, seeing that she is now in front of him.

"She froze you." T-Dog said.

"What?" Daryl asked, confused. "Froze me, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I froze you, that's one of my powers. My other power is blowing up things." Piper said and flicked her wrists at an old chair nearby, blowing it to pieces.

"Okay Piper can you keep it down?" Glenn asked.

"Look Daryl, I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through Hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head." Rick says.

They are right up in each other's face again but this time it's not so confrontational.

"I could do that." Daryl said. "And I'm not just saying that to find Merle but, because I'm kinda on-edge with Piper's powers. Only because of what she can do with them."

* * *

Jim hasn't stopped. Dale, Shane, Morales, Andrea, Amy, Prue, Phoebe and Paige come to see why he's digging. Carol and several others from the camp join them. Even with a crowd of people Jim does not stop.

"Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please?" Shane said.

"What do you want?" Jim asks.

"We're all just a little concerned, that's all." Shane said.

"Yeah what's up with all the digging?" Prue asked.

Phoebe could feel something coming from Jim. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell what it was. This made Phoebe a little suspicious.

"Dale says you've been out here for hours." Morales said.

"So?" Jim asked.

"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" Shane asked.

Phoebe walked near one of the holes and was sucked into a premoniton.

 _There is a body wrapped in blankets being buried by someone, crying can be heard from someone. It sounded like a woman, then the woman said to the body "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what to do. I love you, 'AMY'."_ Premontion ends.

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone." Jim asked.

Jim keeps digging between sentences.

Prue noticed the look on Phoebe's face. Phoebe walks to her sisters and pulls them aside.

"I just had a premonition." Phoebe said.

"What did you see?" Paige asked.

"I saw a body, it was wrapped in blankets." Phoebe pauses.

"Was that it?" Prue asked.

"No. There was a woman crying and she said to the body that she was sorry and didn't know what to do. But the woman also said "I love you Amy." Phoebe said.

"Oh my god." Prue said.

"So that means Amy is going to die and be buried in one of those holes." Paige said. "What do we do?"

"We save her, that's what we do. Protect and save the innocent." Phoebe said.

"Phoebe, this might be a case that we have to let happen. You know how death is, we could end up changing the future by saving Amy." Prue said. "Remember when I saw the Angel of Death, he said that I had to let Inspector Davidson die, because it was his time. Because there's a balance."

"No you don't get it Prue, Amy doesn't deserve to die. Especially not right now. What is wrong with you?" Phoebe said, getting louder and getting the attention of the group beside them. "We're supposed to protect the innocent, not sit back and let them die. Its our destiny Prue, whether you like it or not."

Prue looked at Phoebe with watery eyes, she was crying. Phoebe has never acted out like that before, especially never towards their eldest sister. Prue then ran off, crying. Phoebe seething with anger stands there and then gets ready to yell again. Paige stood there in shock at what had just occured.

"Its a hundred degrees today. You can't keep this up, Jim." Dale said.

"Sure I can. Watch me." Jim said.

"Okay enough of this." Phoebe said, she turn to Jim. "Looks like no one's gonna say it, so let me. You're scaring people. You're scaring Lori's son and Carol's daughter. I sure as hell, not about to put up with that."

Jim pauses. "They got nothing to be scared of."

"Oh really, you out here digging to put bodies in, isn't gonna scare them." Phoebe said revealing her premonition.

"I mean, what the Hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the Hell alone. And bodies, what are you talking about bodies?" Jim said, trying to play innocent and not reveal what he know.

"Phoebe had a premonition. A body was being buried in that hole." Paige said, pointing. "The body was...Amy." Gasps could be heard from the group members around.

"What?!" Amy said.

"Oh my god, no. That can't be possible." Andrea said.

"Face the facts, Andrea. Amy is gonna die, but we'll try and stop that from happening the best we can." Phoebe said.

"Oh god Amy, no you can't die and leave me here alone." Andrea said, crying.

Jim shoves the shovel into the ground and storms back to the camp in anger.

"Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Shane said.

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is." Jim said.

Shane handcuffs Jim's hands behind his back.

"I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it a hundred times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em." Jim said. "Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family." Jim says to Lori who is horrified.

Lori presses her hands to her mouth. Shane lets out a breath.

"Oh my god Jim, I'm so sorry." Phoebe said and her empathy powers making her feel the group's feelings for Jim from what they heard him say.

Jim has been tied to a tree. Shane and Dale bring him water in a bucket.

"Jim, take some water?" Shane said.

"All right." Jim said.

"Yeah? All right. Here you go, bud." Shane said.

Shane dips some out with a coffee cup. Jim drinks. Several feet away Sophia and Carl are being homeschooled by their mothers.

"Pour some on my head?" Jim asked.

"Yeah. Cool you down, bud?" Shane said.

Morales picks up a nearby rock, glances at Shane and Jim then walks back away.

Phoebe walks over.

"Yeah. How long you gonna keep me like this?" Jim asked.

"Hey Jim." Phoebe said.

"Well, yeah. Until I don't think that you're a danger to yourself or others." Shane said.

Jim looks over to where Carol and Lori are working with Carl and Sophia and up at Phoebe.

"Hey Phoebe." Jim said.

"How are you feeling?" Phoebe asked.

"Ehhh...hot and maybe a little tired." Jim said.

"Look I came over to say I'm sorry for earlier. I'm sorry about what I said. I had a major meltdown with Prue and I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you." Phoebe said.

"Its okay Phoebe, I can understand. With the way the world is and seeing someone digging holes and scaring people...I mean I guess I did deserve some of the anger." Jim said.

"Oh no Jim, you didn't do anything wrong. I understand what it feels like to be annoyed and frustrated when you want some alone time, just don't make it suspicious-looking. If you know what I mean." Phoebe said.

"I know." Jim said.

"Okay, well you get some rest and I'm gonna go find my sisters." Phoebe said.

"Okay." Jim said. Phoebe stands up and turns to walk away. "Oh wait Phoebe!" Jim called to the witch.

"Yeah Jim?" Phoebe asked.

"Don't lose your sisters, keep them close. Be there for each other and don't drive yourselves apart. They are really the only loved ones you have left." Jim said.

"I won't lose my sisters Jim, they're not going anywhere." Phoebe said and walks away.

Jim looks back over to where Carol and Lori are working with Carl and Sophia.

"Sorry if I scared your boy and your little girl." Jim said.

"You had sunstroke. Nobody's blaming you." Lori said.

"You're not scared now, are you?" Jim asked.

"No sir." Sophia said.

The four of them keep working. Carl looks up but is more interested in what Lori is teaching him.

"Your mama's right. Sun just cooked my head is all." Jim said.

"Jim, do you know why you were digging? Can you say?" Dale said.

"I had a reason. Don't remember." Jim said.

"Well if you remember let one of us know, okay?" Paige said.

Jim nods at them. "something I dreamt last night." He said. "Your dad was in it. You were too. You were worried about him. Can't remember the rest. You worried about your dad?" He says to Carl.

"They're not back yet." Carl said.

"We don't need to talk about that." Lori said.

Paige sitting near by listening, join the conversation.

"With all due respect Lori, you need to talk to your son about things like that. You can't keep him in the dark about things. You're gonna have to talk to him some time." Paige said.

"Well some time isn't now." Lori said to Paige.

"Your dad's a police officer, son. He helps people. Probably just came across some folks needing help, that's all. That man, he is tough as nails. I don't know him well but…I could see it in him." Jim says. "Am I right?" Jim asks Shane.

"Oh yeah." Shane says.

"There ain't nothing gonna stop him from getting back here to you and your mom, I promise you that." Jim said.

Shane picks up the bucket. "All right. Who wants to help me clean some fish, huh?" Shane asked.

"Sweet. Come on, Sophia." Carl said.

"Hmm I might as well do something to pitch in around here." Paige says and follows Shane

"Stay with Carol, all right?" Lori said.

They leave and Lori walks over to Jim. Before she can say anything Jim stops her.

"You keep your boy close. You don't ever let him out of your sight." Jim said. "And what Paige said to you just a bit ago, you should listen to her advice. Think about it."

Lori nods. Jim's intensity scares her. Wordlessly she goes to join Carl.

* * *

The four men and the witch walk back to where they parked the cube van.

"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat." Glenn said.

"Don't tell anybody." Rick said.

"I'm still kinda on-edge of seeing the sight of Merle Dixon's chopped off hand." Piper said, holding her stomach from just thinking about it.

"Like I said nothing can kill Merle except for Merle." Daryl said.

They come around an abandoned metro bus and look to where the cube van should be.

"Oh my God." Glenn said.

"Where the Hell's our van?" Daryl said.

"We left it right there. Who would take it?" T-Dog said.

"Merle." Rick said.

"Merle?! Are you kidding me?" Piper said.

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." Daryl said.

"Well its gonna be night soon, we should go so we're not wasting daylight." Piper said.

"You're right come on, lets go." Rick said. "And hopefully make it there before Merle slaughters every last one of them."

* * *

Back at camp, in the R.V., Andrea and Prue are going through all the drawers and cupboards. Dale walks in.

"Wrapping paper, color tissue, anything?" Andrea asked.

"Maybe some type of colored paper or a small box or bag that can be decorated or something." Prue said.

"Seriously?" Dale asked.

"How can you not have any?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah, we thought you out of all people would have something we can use." Prue said.

"Had I been informed of the impending apocalypse I'd have stocked up." Dale said.

"It's Amy's birthday tomorrow. I've been marking days on the calendar just to make sure." Andrea said.

"Phoebe's birthday is tomorrow as well." Prue said and pulls the necklace out of her jacket pocket.

Andrea pulls out the necklace she'd gotten in Atlanta. Dale then puts his glasses on and takes them to look.

"You don't give a gift unwrapped." Andrea said.

"Yeah, it doesn't feel right to do it like that." Prue said.

"Deep breath. I'm sure I'll find something here." Dale said

Outside, a little later. Amy, Dale, and Phoebe are putting chairs around the fire.

"I, uh, built up the rocks all around, see? So the flames can be a little higher and have 'em be hidden." Morales said.

Prue walks over to Phoebe. Paige joins them and Prue pulls them both aside.

"What do we do about Amy's death?" Prue asked.

"I'm not sure, the premonition didn't even show her dying. It just her body being buried." Phoebe said.

"Maybe that's it, we have to let it happen. If the premonition didn't give any clue of when Amy died, then maybe that means were not supposed to stop it. Maybe you only got it so we could prepare for what's to come." Paige said.

"It's not fair. It's not fair that there is an innocent out there and we have no idea how to save her." Phoebe said.

"Phoebe, you know that in our line of work that nothing is fair." Prue said.

"I know." Phoebe said. Paige and Prue hugged Phoebe.

"Oh Prue I'm so sorry for what I said earlier. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I'm so sorry, I don't wanna lose you. You're my sister, just like Paige and Piper and I can't lose of any of you." Phoebe now said, crying.

"Oh Phoebe, its okay. I understand your emotions and empathy power and with everything that's going on now. You had every right to let that anger out. I'm not mad at you Phoebe and you're not gonna lose me or Piper or Paige. And we're not gonna lose you." Prue said to Phoebe and hugged her again.

Phoebe wipes her eyes and calms down a bit. "I love you both and I love Piper too."

"We love you too." Paige said.

In the last light of the day Rick and the others run up the road toward the camp. They're panting.

People sit around the campfire, eating dinner. People laugh.

"Pass the fish, please." Sophia said.

"Here you go." Carol said.

"Man o man, that's good. Whew." Shane says and chuckles. "I miss this."

"I know the feeling." Paige said. "Haven't had something as good as this since Piper last cooked."

"Oh god, I miss Piper's cooking." Phoebe said.

Smiling and relaxed everyone eats and laughs. Andrea drinks a beer. A pan of fish is passed around for seconds.

"I've got to ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales said, looking to Dale.

"What?" Dale asked.

"That watch." Morales said.

"What's wrong with my watch?" Dale asked.

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying Mass." Morales said.

Andrea points at Dale and nods agreement, her mouth busy with a bite of fish.

"I've wondered this myself." Jacqui said.

"Maybe most of us have wondered this." Prue said.

"I'm missing the point." Dale said.

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." Jacqui said.

"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales said.

"Time – it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." Dale said.

Andrea chuckles.

She doesn't reply. Andrea's not going to give Amy any clue that she knows it's her birthday.

"I like – I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, "I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it." Dale said.

"Dale that's a lovely saying. I like it." Paige said.

"Well thank you Paige." Dale said. Paige smiled back at him and nodded her head.

Prue looks to Phoebe and smiles, excited to give her the necklace for her birthday tomorrow.

Morales and Jacqui smile in agreement. Shane looks questioningly at Lori. She gives him a blank look back.

"You are so weird." Amy said.

Everyone laughs.

"It's not me. It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing." Dale asked.

Amy puts down her cup and gets up from the fire.

"Where are you going?" Andrea asked.

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here." Amy said.

Everyone laughs.

Ed is awakened by rustling outside his tent. "Thought I told y'all to leave me the Hell alone, didn't I? Hey!"

He crawls over and opens the tent flap.

"What'd I say?" Ed says.

A walker is there growling.

"Oh!" Ed says.

Amy opens the door and steps down from the R.V. She stands and calls down to the camp as she holds the door open.

"We're out of toilet paper?" Amy asked.

A walker growls.

The first walker attacks Ed before he can even think past his shock. Other walkers outside are attracted to his screams.

From behind the R.V. door a walker grabs Amy's arm and takes a bite out of it.

Amy screams. Andrea turns and, horrified, sees the attack. Everyone who hears the scream turns and looks. More walkers come from behind the R.V.

People begin screaming.

Everyone panics and gets up from the fire.

"Oh my god!" Prue said.

"Mom!" Carl said.

"Carl!" Lori said.

Lori holds Carl close protecting him. Carol grabs Sophia. Shane grabs his shotgun and cocks it. Many of the others scatter in different directions.

"Prue!" Phoebe yelled.

"Phoebe! Paige!" Prue yells. Phoebe and Paige run to her.

"Lori, get him down!" Shane yells.

He stands between them and the attack. He starts shooting the walkers.

"What should we do?" Paige asks.

"Power of Three Spell?" Phoebe asks.

"Worth a shot." Prue says and waves her hand, sending three walker flying into the quarry nearby.

Down on the road Rick and the others hear the gun shots.

"Oh my God." Rick says.

"Go! Go!" Glenn said.

"Oh no, Prue! Phoebe! Paige!" Piper says and runs ahead of the men.

A woman and some children are screaming.

Jim hits one walker down with a baseball bat. Dale has his rifle. Carol shelters Sophia behind him. Two walkers tear into a man, they begin to eat him alive. Nearby Morales takes a walker down with his baseball bat. Prue, Phoebe, and Paige chant the Power of Three spell.

Even though Lori is holding him, Carl is panics and screams. She and Carl shelter behind Shane.

"I'm right here. Shane, what do we do? Shane?" Lori screams.

"Follow me!" Shane says.

Jacqui, baseball bat in the air, stands by Dale as he continues to shoot walkers. A second walker bites Amy in the neck. Amy screams.

Andrea runs to her. "NO! NO!"

Phoebe turns to see that has went down. "Oh my god, Amy." Phoebe says.

Jim hits Amy's walker and it goes down. Andrea crawls to Amy.

"Oh! Oh! Oh God! Oh my God!" Andrea says.

"Help me." Amy says, groaning.

"Oh God, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do." Andrea says, crying.

Amy lies on the ground in pain. Andrea stays with her. She tries to stop the bleeding from her neck. All around her people are screaming, some are killing walkers and some are being eaten. Shane leads Lori, Carl, Carol, Sophia away from the walkers.

"Come on. Come on. Stay close!" Shane says.

"Carol!" Lori says.

"Stay close!" Shane says.

Prue, Phoebe, and Paige continue chanting the Power of Three spell.

"Come on keep chanting." Prue says, waving her hand and sending more walkers flying.

"The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free." The three sisters chant as Prue sends more walkers flying in the process.

A girl comes out of the darkness. She's running from one walker but runs into another.

Morales kills another walker and looks around to see a walker feeding on an elderly black man.

"Come on, Y'all! Work your way up here!" Shane yells.

Near the campfire Morales hits another walker with his bat. His family shelters behind him.

"Right in front of you. Shane!" Lori screams.

"Get to the R.V.! Go!" Morales says to his family. He keeps hitting walkers as they close in on the group at the R.V.

The sisters chant the spell and is vanquishing several walkers at a time.

"Its not enough. The spell needs more power." Paige says.

"Yeah well Piper isn't here right now." Phoebe says.

"Just keep chanting." Prue says.

"The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. " The sisters chant.

"Stay behind me! Morales, work up here!" Shane said.

"Get behind me! Come on!" Lori said.

"Let's go! Come on; Make your way to the Winnebago!" Shane said.

"Mom, look." Carl says to Lori, pointing in the direction of the sisters.

"What are they doing?" Carol asks, noticing the sisters too.

"Looks like their chanting a spell or something. You think they did this?" Lori said.

"Woah Mom look!" Sophia says to Carol, looking at several walkers explode.

"Lori look, the sisters. The walkers when they get close to them, they explode." Carol says.

Lori looks over to the sisters and sees a walker explode as tries to get close to them. But she also here's something, ' _The Power of Three will set us free.'_ What could that mean and what's the ' _Power of Three_ ' Lori thought.

Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl, and Piper run into the camp. There are still over a dozen walkers. With their shotguns they start clearing the threats. Piper begins blowing up walkers left and right, taking out several walkers.

Gunshots were fired and people were shouting.

When their shotguns are empty they keep killing. Rick with his colt, Daryl with the butt of his gun, and Piper with exploding power.

"Baby! Carl! Baby!" Rick said.

"Dad!" Carl said, crying. Carl jumps into his dad's arms. Lori sobs, relieved to see him. Shane watches Rick and Carl. Morales holds his baseball bat ready. Jim walks through the camp. Daryl looks around for more targets. T-Dog, still keyed up, searches for more walkers to kill.

"Piper!" Phoebe said, happy to see Piper.

"Prue! Phoebe! Paige!" Piper says, happy and runs to her sisters and hugs them.

"We thought we'd never see you again." Prue said.

"Don't worry you're not gonna lose me anytime soon." Piper said.

Glenn who is panting and almost hysterical, does the same and searches around for more walkers.

"Carl!" Rick said.

Andrea sobbing, holds Amy who lies on the ground bleeding and dying.

"Shh shh shh. Oh, Amy." Andrea said.

Amy gags.

"I don't know what to do, Amy." Andrea said.

Amy looks like she wants to talk. She puts her hand up to Andrea's cheek and caresses her sister with her fingertips. She gasps for breath then Amy's eyes close and she dies. Andrea is beside herself*.

"Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh, Amy." Andrea said, crying.

Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige look to see Andrea crying over a dead Amy.

"Oh my god." Piper said.

"I feel so sorry that we couldn't help her, I mean she lost her sister." Paige said.

"I can't imagine if that were one you laying there." Prue said. "I wouldn't be able to go on without you three."

"I got that premonition for a reason, what if were supposed to save Amy." Phoebe said.

"But the premoniton gave us no clue of how or when she died, Phoebe. There's no way we could've saved without knowing when she died." Paige said.

"I know, Paige." Phoebe said.

"Wait..premonition? When did you get a premonition?" Piper says.

"I'll tell you later." Phoebe said.

Rick, holding Carl and, still clutching the shotgun, with his other arm around Lori sees Amy die and Andrea grieve. He lets Carl down to the ground. Lori comes out of her relief. She turns, horrified to see Amy dead on the ground. Andrea is bent over her, unable to contain herself. She gently shakes Amy as if to waken her.

The sisters walk over to the survivors of the group that made it out alive that night.

Andrea still crying over Amy's body. "Oh no no. Amy!" She says, wailing. "AMY! Amy!"

"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes." Jim said.

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**

 **STAY TUNED FOR WILDFIRE!**

 ***** _ **Beside herself (yourself) - overcome with worry or anger; distraught. Basically it means to experience strong emotion.**_ *****


	6. Wildfire

**A/N: Hey guys mdaCHARMED14 here. I hope you enjoyed 'Vatos' and are enjoyng the chapter so far. I've been chatting with another author on this site, collussus96. And he or she (I'm so sorry in advance collussus I'm not sure if you're a boy or girl) has been helping me with ideas I have and I also run ideas by collussus to see if they are good. And when season 2 chapters come out and the chapters for season 3, season 4, season 5, season 6, and when season 7 scripts get released after 7 comes out. Anyway collussus has been helping me brainstorm ideas that are awesome and some of them belong to collussus. Which is why I'm going to go ahead and mention him or her (like I said I'm sorry collussus, I'm not sure if you're a boy or girl, really really sorry) in this chapters author's note so that I don't forget to mention collussus and so that you guys (the readers) no that I didn't come up with all these ideas and so I'm not taking credit for an idea that I didn't come up with, because I'm not like that and don't want to take credit for an idea that isn't mine. So, you lovely readers can search up collussus96 (no caps in name) and read some of his or her work, if you want. So I'll shut up now and stop babbling and get on with 'Wildfire'.**

At the Atlanta camp, Andrea is sitting with Amy. Lori walks over and kneels beside her.

"Andrea." Lori says.

Andrea doesn't look up or answer. Lori sits down on her knees.

"I'm so sorry. She's gone. You got to let us take her. We all cared about her and I promise we'll be as gentle as we can."

Andrea continues to ignore Lori. As Lori gets up she touches Andrea on the back and leaves her to her sister.

Daryl uses a pick axe to make sure all the dead stay down. Daryl then grunts.

T-Dog and Glenn pick the body up and toss it onto a nearby fire that already has other corpses on it. Across the camp Rick joins Dale, Shane, Lori, Dale, Carol, Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige at the fire.

T-Dog coughs.

"She still won't move?" Rick asks.

"She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Lori said.

"Andrea lost her sister, someone she's known almost her entire life. Someone she grew up with. I understand what she's going through. When Piper died from Oroya Fever, a few years ago. I thought that I was going to lose it. But she came back, Leo brought her back and didn't let her die and I know Amy won't be saved. My point is that, it hurts to lose someone that close to you. It hurts a lot." Phoebe said, drawing off that experience and some of Andrea's feelings.

"Can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it. Same as the others." Shane said.

"I'll tell her how it is." Rick says.

He walks over beside Andrea, stoops down beside her.

"Andrea–" Rick says.

Andrea whips around shoves her gun in Rick's face and cocks it.

"I know how the safety works." Andrea said.

Rick gets very quiet. He puts out a hand and slowly backs away.

"All right. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Rick says.

Andrea turns back to Amy. Rick backs off.

"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Daryl said.

"What do you suggest?" Rick asks.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No. For God's sakes, let her be." Lori says.

"Oh my god, don't you get it. Andrea lost her sister." Piper said, yelling and everyone turing their attention to her. Even Andrea turns her head a bit. "She lost her sister and all you can think about is pulling a bullet in Amy's brain. What is wrong with you, let the woman grieve over her dead sister. How would you like it if it were you leaning over your brother's corpse? Or you leaning over Lori or Carl." She yells. Lori and Rick mouth open wide and Daryl looking towards the ground.

Phoebe began picking up Piper's emotions. "Oh no." Phoebe says. She held her stomach, she was picking up everyone's emotions. "Prue! Paige! Piper!" Phoebe yelled and falls to the ground, crying on her knees.

"Oh my god, Phoebe." Prue said.

"Phoebe?!" Paige yelled.

"Look Piper, just calm down." Rick says.

"No, you listen to me Rick. You will put the bullet in Amy's brain when the time is right, you will give Andrea the time to grieve okay and only do it when she's ready. She's going through a lot right now. None of you lost anyone important last night, but she did. Can't any you understand that, I mean jeez." Piper said and stormed off towards the tent she shared with her sisters.

Shane shrugs his eyebrows, Rick shrugs his shoulders.

"Phoebe are you okay." Prue said, helping Phoebe to her knees.

"What happened?" Paige asked.

"I thought I was controlling my empathy power. But everyone's emotions overcame me, including Piper's." Phoebe said. "It was horrible, so much pain and anger."

"You're okay now, its over." Prue said.

"Maybe you should stay at a certain distance from us and the group when possible to until you have full control over your power." Paige said.

"Yeah maybe you're right." Phoebe said and walks off. Prue and Paige go and help with corpse cleaning.

Daryl scoffs and walks off. Even though he's cleaning up the corpses he doesn't pick up the one near the cook fire.

"Wake up, Jimbo. We've got some work to do." Daryl said.

Morales pants.

Daryl drops the pick axe and helps Morales.

"Thanks." Morales said.

They start to pull a corpse to the fire where the walkers are being burned. Glenn notices and walks over to them.

Prue walks over and joins them. "Okay woah, what do you think you're doing?" She asks.

"Burning the corpse, what does it look like?" Daryl said.

"This is for geeks. Our people go over there." Glenn said, having already talked to this with Prue earlier when she and Paige almost burned the corpse of one of the deceased group members.

"What's the difference? They're all infected." Daryl said.

"Our people go in that row over there." Glenn said, crying out. "We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand?"

"Glenn's right. Our people deserve to be buried, not burned. They were somebody we knew and cared about, not just some walker." Prue said.

Daryl and Morales start to pick the body back up, dragging it to where Glenn points.

"Our people go in that row over there." Glenn said.

"You reap what you sow." Daryl said.

"What's that supposed mean?" Prue asked.

"Just shut up, man." Morales said to Daryl.

"Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming." Daryl said.

"You're brother was dangerous and an asshole. He backhanded Paige and almost beat T-Dog to death and none the less was asking for sex, like a psychotic pig. He had it coming." Prue said.

"My brother isn't a psycho. He may be an asshole, but he is not a psycho." Daryl said.

"Well in my eyes, Merle Dixon is a psychotic asshole who hits on every woman he meets. I'll be glad if he never returns." Prue said with anger.

"Take it easy, guys. Please don't fight." Morales said.

"So what, you agree with her?" Daryl asked.

Glenn and Morales don't say anything.

"Okay I guess everyone tells me what to do and I have to do it, but when I want to do something I'm not allowed too." Daryl said.

"Daryl no one said that you weren't allowed to do what you wanted." Glenn says.

"Well it sure as hell seems like it." Daryl said.

"Okay just shut up, don't say anything. Just keep moving bodies." Morales said.

"Excuse m-.." Prue said.

"No, don't say another word. Just move bodies." Morales said.

Prue looks at him with anger and her mouth open. She then turn and uses her telekinesis to send the corpse of a walker into the fire. "Do not forget what I am and who I am." Prue says.

Jim walks over to help Jacqui and Paige with a body. They look up at Jim and notice blood on his shirt.

"Is that blood?" Paige asks.

"You're bleeding, aren't you?" Jacqui asked.

"I just got some on me from the bodies." Jim says.

"That blood doesn't look old." Paige says, with worry on her face.

"Paige's right, that blood's fresh. Were you bit?" Jacqui says.

Jim looks at them.

"Jim, were you bit?" Paige asks.

"No. I got scratched during the attack." Jim says.

"You got bit." Jacqui says.

"I'm fine." Jim says.

"Then show us." Paige said.

"Don't tell, please." Jim whispers.

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim." Jacqui says.

"Prue, get over here. Jim's been bitten by a walker." Paige says loudly, so Prue can hear her.

Everyone stops what they are doing and start to gather around. Jacqui and Paige back away from Jim.

Prue comes running. "Paige, did I just hear you say Jim's been bitten?"

"Yeah, Jacqui and I noticed the fresh blood on his shirt." Paige said.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says.

"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl said.

There's chattering. Phoebe hears the commotion from where she was sitting. "What in the world is going on?" Phoebe gets and runs back.

Piper can hear the chattering and yelling from the tent. She sticks her head outside the tent and she sees everyone ganging up on Jim. "Oh great, now what." She says and goes to see what's going on.

The crowd is tense and threatening. Jim grabs a shovel to defend himself as Shane walks over. Piper and Phoebe join them.

"Okay what's going on?" Phoebe asks.

"Jim was bitten by walker." Paige says.

"Oh my god." Piper says.

"Easy, Jim." Shane says.

"Grab him." Daryl says.

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane says.

"Jim do what Shane says and put the shovel down." Prue says.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says.

"Jim, stop or I'll freeze." Piper says.

T-Dog grabs Jim from behind. Daryl pulls up his t shirt. A huge bite mark is on his stomach. Daryl drops the shirt and T-Dog lets go of Jim. He's left by himself as everyone else groups up against him.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says, breathing heavily. "I'm okay."

Jim sits at the rear of the R.V. while everyone else has a conference.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl said.

"No you're not, Jim's still human. And we don't kill humans." Prue said.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane said to Daryl.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl said.

"I can't believe you people are actually considering killing Jim. He's alive and living, at least we should try and find something to help him, maybe a cure." Piper said.

"I hate to say it—I never thought I would but maybe Daryl's right." Dale said.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick said.

"I refuse to believe your suggesting-" Phoebe said

"I'm not suggesting—" Dale said.

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick said.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers. Or them to be." Daryl said.

"Jim's not a walker and we shouldn't just let him die especially not like this." Paige said.

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick said.

"Finally, someone heard what I said. We should try and help him, we need to find a cure and we will try. Jim is an innocent, we at least need to try and save him." Piper said.

"Piper, I told Phoebe this too. Now I'm telling you, we're not meant to save all innocents. What if Jim is another one of those cases." Prue said.

"Prue, you just said that we shouldn't kill Jim. Are you now saying we should let him die. Make up your mind Prue, what side are you on?" Paige said.

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to Hell." Shane said.

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick said.

"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane said.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection, rescue—" Rick said.

"What if somehow I could get a premonition about the C.D.C and see if its still up and running." Phoebe said.

"Phoebe, how would you get a premonition if you have nothing connected to the C.D.C" Paige said.

"I'll try and find a way, Paige. Starting by looking in the Book of Shadows." Phoebe said and walked off.

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too. Okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane said.

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori said.

"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there." Shane said.

"Yeah and we'd run into more walkers as well. Possibly an amount we seen in the city." Prue said.

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick said.

"You go looking for aspirin; do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl said.

"Daryl, don't you dare. Stop or I'll freeze." Piper said. He doesn't stop. "Okay how about I blow you up instead."

Daryl gets close to Jim and raises his pick axe. Rick runs up behind him and puts his cocked revolver to Daryl's head.

"Hey hey hey!" Shane said.

"We don't kill the living." Rick said.

Shane takes a stand between Daryl and Jim. Daryl lowers the pick axe.

"Daryl, back away from Jim and go somewhere else." Prue said.

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl said to Rick. "Or the woman who threatened to blow me up." He said to Piper.

"We may disagree on some things, not on this one. You put it down. Go on." Shane said.

Grunting with the effort Daryl slams the axe down and walks off. Rick goes over to Jim grabs him by the arm.

"Come with me." Rick said.

"Where are you taking me?" Jim asked.

"Somewhere safe." Rick said.

* * *

Prue found Phoebe back at their tent with the Book of Shadows in her lap.

"Hey." Prue said.

"Hey." Phoebe said.

"What are you looking for?" Prue asked.

"A way to get a premonition about something without having anything connected to it." Phoebe said, fliiping a page.

"Do you think you can stop for minute?" Prue asked, sitting down beside Phoebe.

"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked.

"Nothing is wrong, but I do have something for you." Prue said, pulling the gift out her jacket pocket. The necklace was inside of a small box that had been decorated using some pretty leaves, strips of different colored cloth, a little bit of magic, and the phrase 'Happy Birthday was written on the lid. "Happy Birthday, Phoebe!" She said, with a smile on her face.

"You got me a birthday present?" Phoebe asked.

"Yes and I kept up with the days on a calendar so I would know exactly when to give it to you." Prue said. "Now open the box."

Phoebe opens the box to find a necklace with her name on it. "Aww, its beautiful. You didn't have to do this." The necklace was gold with a pendant that had the name 'Phoebe' on it. The 'P' had six diamonds lining the straight part.

"Aww Prue, thank you so much. I love you." Phoebe said, hugging Prue.

"I love you too." Prue said.

Prue hooked the necklace around Phoebe's neck for her.

"Thanks." Phoebe said.

"Your welcome." Prue said and left the tent, letting Phoebe continue looking through the book.

* * *

Andrea is still with Amy. Shallow breathing can be heard. Andrea puts her head close to Amy's chest to listen. There's breathing. Andrea looks at Amy, who's beginning to reanimate. Amy's hand twitches convulsively. Andrea puts her hand to Amy's cheek, caressing her. Amy's eyes open, they are dead.

"Amy." Andrea said.

Walker Amy looks at Andrea.

"Amy, I'm sorry." Andrea said.

Walker Amy's hand comes up, reaching. Its fingertips caress Andrea's cheek.

"I'm sorry for not ever being there. I always thought there'd be more time." Andrea said.

Walker Amy grips Andrea's hair. She pulls herself up. Walker Amy growls. Lovingly, Andrea holds Walker Amy's face away and out of danger. Rick and Shane are standing near a car when they see that Amy's moving. Over by the cook fire Dale, Carol, Piper, and Paige do, too. Walker Amy struggles to get at Andrea.

"I'm here now, Amy. I'm here." Andrea said.

Shane and Rick walk forward, guns out. Piper and Paige get up and walk towards Andrea as well, Piper has her hands up ready to freeze or blow up something if necessary.

"I love you." Andrea said.

Andrea puts her head to Amy's and her gun behind Amy's ear and pulls the trigger.

Walker Amy falls. Andrea tenderly caresses Amy's cheek and face. Lovingly she looks at her sister.

* * *

Up on the hilltop Rick and Shane dig more graves. Rick stops.

"Say it." Rick said.

Shane stops and leans on his shovel.

"Okay. I'm thinking if you'd of stayed here, if you'd have looked after your own—instead you went off you took half our manpower with you. I'm thinking maybe our losses wouldn't have been so bad." Shane said.

"If we hadn't gone off then Daryl might've done something crazy or dangerous, I think our losses would have been a lot worse. Maybe the entire camp." Rick said.

A truck approaches.

Shane exhales, he doesn't look convinced.

Daryl has backed a pickup truck up the hill. Shrouded bodies lie in the truck bed. He parks it close to the grave site. He gets out and walks toward Rick and Shane who've gone back to work.

"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Daryl said.

"At first." Shane said.

"The Chinaman and the oldest witch got all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow them along? These people need to know who the Hell's in charge here, what the rules are." Daryl said.

"There are no rules." Rick said.

Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia have followed the truck up the hill. Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige behind them.

"Well, that's a problem." Lori said.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with your wife, sheriff." Paige said, giggling at the fact she called Rick 'sheriff'. Prue smirks at Paige.

Carol whispers comfort to Sophia.

"We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori said.

"She right, you know." Phoebe said.

Andrea is dragging Amy's corpse, wrapped in a sheet, toward her grave. Dale tries helping her but she won't let him. He manages to take Amy's feet for a moment.

"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it." Andrea said, crying.

She pulls Amy into the grave and arranges her.

Lori is crying. Piper is crying too, while her sisters try and comfort her.

"I can't imagine if that was me dragging one of you into a hole to be buried." Piper said.

"Oh honey, you're not gonna lose any of us and we we're not gonna lose you." Phoebe said.

"Hey." Dale said to Andrea. Andrea then let's Dale help her up out of the grave. Andrea pants.

* * *

A little later in the camp, Andrea is asleep in a chair. Lori is sharpening a stick. Phoebe and Paige are talking and sharing a small snack bag of chips that they had stashed in their bags.

"Did you ever find a way to get a premonition of the C.D.C?" Paige asked.

"No, unfortunately that plan was a bust." Phoebe said.

"Maybe you aren't supposed too." Paige said.

"Yeah, maybe." Phoebe said.

Rick, Shane, and Dale walk into the camp where people are gathered.

"I've been, uh—I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no—there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts." Shane said.

Lori looks at Shane with suspicion.

"I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?" Shane said.

"Okay, we'll tell Prue and Piper and we'll get our stuff ready." Phoebe said.

Both sisters get up and walk towards their tent.

* * *

The next day, Jim wakes up with a start. He's covered in sweat. He gasps and coughs. He can also hear Shane talking outside.

"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on Channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane said.

Daryl wipes tears from his eyes.

"We're, uh…we're—we're not going." Morales said.

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Eliza Morales says.

"You go you're on your own. You won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane said.

"Shane's right, if you run into a herd of walkers or a group of hostile people, it'll just be you." Prue says.

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales said.

"You sure?" Rick asks.

"We talked about it. We're sure." Morales said.

"All right. Shane." Rick said.

"Yeah, all right." Shane said.

".357?" Rick asks.

"Yeah. Box is half full." Shane said.

Rick and Shane hand Morales a .357 Magnum and half a box of ammo. Daryl scoffs as if he can't believe it.

"Thank you all… for everything." Eliza said.

Lori gives her a hug. "Come here." She says. Eliza cries.

After Lori and Eliza hug, Paige walks up to her. "If you need anything or run into trouble, just yell out my name, which is Paige if you didn't know." Paige says.

"How will you hear?" Eliza asks.

"Trust me, I will. All you have to do is yell out my name and I'll be there." Paige says.

"Okay. Thank you." Eliza says. They hug.

Morales and Shane shake.

"Good luck, man." Shane said.

Lori kisses the Morales boy and girl good bye.

"Appreciate it." Morales says to Shane.

"Yeah." Shane says.

The Morales girl hugs Sophia.

"Bye." The girl says.

"Thank you." Eliza says to Jacqui. They hug.

Eliza walks over to Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. "Thank you." She say to them and she hugs Prue, then Piper, then Phoebe.

"Bye." Sophia says to the girl.

The Morales' daughter gives Sophia her doll. Both girls cry.

"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?" Rick says.

"Yeah." Morales says.

Carol hugs Sophia. "I know." Carol says to Sophia

"What makes you think our odds are any better? Come on. Let's go. Let's move out." Shane says.

Rick looks disappointed.

Engines start.

The R.V. passes the red car where the map and note for Morgan are taped. It reads "Morgan- Going to C.D.C. This area not safe –Rick"

The Morales go one way in their jeep while the R.V., heading the caravan, turns off in the other direction. Glenn waves good bye through the open window. Glenn has the map with directions marked. Jacqui is in the back of the R.V. sponging Jim off. He's delirious with fever, muttering.

Rick drives Carol's Jeep Cherokee. She sits in the back with Sophia and Carl. Lori is up front with Rick. She smiles. Shane is behind, alone in his open jeep. Andrea is in the church bus with T-Dog. The sisters are in a jeep that resembles Prue's jeep back in San Francisco. With Prue driving and Piper in the passenger's seat and Phoebe and Paige in the backseats. Back in the R.V., Jacqui continues helping Jim. Jim groans in pain.

Daryl follows in a pickup, a motorcycle strapped down in the truck bed.

* * *

A little later, the R.V. is on the side of the road. The front grill is open and steam is pouring out.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale said.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asks.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape." Dale said.

Shane is looking through his binoculars. Daryl, T-Dog, Andrea, and Prue are standing on guard.

"I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky." Shane says.

Jacqui comes out of the R.V. "Y'all, Jim—it's bad. I don't think he can take anymore."

"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane said.

"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog said.

"I'll go too, that you have a witch on back up as well." Piper said.

"Okay Piper. Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back." Shane said.

Rick takes off his hat, braces himself and goes in to where Jim is lying.

"We'll be back on the road soon." Rick says.

"Oh no, Christ. My bones—my bones are like glass. Every little bump, God, this ride is killing me. Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me. I want to be with my family." Jim said.

"They're all dead. I don't think you know what you're asking. The fever—you've been delirious more often than not." Rick said.

"I know. Don't you think I know?" Jim says. He pulls himself up in the bed. He groans as he does.

"I'm clear now. In five minutes I may not be. Rick, I know what I'm asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now that's on me. Okay? My decision, not your failure." Jim says.

"We could have Paige heal you? She said one of her powers were to heal, maybe we can get her in here-" Rick said.

"No. I already told you, I want to be with my family." Jim says.

Outside Rick tells the others. Shane, T-Dog, and Piper are already back from their scouting trip.

"It's what he says he wants." Rick said.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asks.

"He seems to be. I would say yes." Rick says.

"What about Paige she could try and heal him." Phoebe said.

"Phoebe, you know I've only done it twice." Paige said.

"Actually Paige, I asked him if he wanted you to heal him and he said no." Rick said.

"Is he sure?" Paige asks.

"Yeah he's sure about it." Rick said.

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants and I think we have an answer." Dale said.

"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane said.

"I have to agree with Shane, we shouldn't just leave him here. We can still try and get him help." Prue said.

"It's not your call, either of you." Lori said.

"Lori's right Rick, its up to Jim and what he wants." Piper said.

Partway up a hill just off the road Rick and Shane let Jim down to the ground and settle his back against a tree.

"Yeah. That's it." Rick says.

Jim groans and is breathing heavily. "Hey, another damn tree." Jim says and chuckles.

"Hey, Jim—I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane says.

"No. it's good. The breeze feels nice." Jim says.

"Okay. All right." Shane says.

Jacqui comes over and kneels beside him. "Just close your eyes, Sweetie. Don't fight." Jacqui says. Crying, she kisses him on the cheek and goes back down the hill. Rick comes forward and kneels as well.

"Jim, do you want this?" Rick asked and offers him a pistol.

"No. you'll need it. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says.

Rick walks back down and Dale kneels by Jim.

"Oh, hey." Jim says.

"Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us." Dale says.

"Okay." Jim says, breathing loudly.

Phoebe walks up to Jim and kneels beside him. "We'll miss you." She says to him.

"Its okay and Phoebe remember what I said. Don't lose your sisters, keep each other close." Jim says.

"I won't forget and I won't lose them." Phoebe says and kisses him on the cheek. She gets back up and walks off, wiping a few tears out of her eyes.

Neither Glenn nor Andrea says anything but they are visibly moved. Everyone but Daryl walks away. Jim and Daryl look at each other, Daryl nods respectfully and joins the others as they go back to their cars. Jacqui watches from inside the R.V., crying. Jim smiles and looks up at the sky.

The cars start. As the cars pass they look up at Jim one last time.

* * *

The vehicles are parked in the street along the front of the CDC building. They climb out. There are corpses everywhere, both military and civilians. Sand bag barricades had been constructed to reinforce security at the entrance. They are still in place but the corpses litter the street in front and behind the barricades.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go." Shane says.

"Oh god, I might hurl." Paige said.

"Paige just cover your mouth and please don't hurl. Don't add to the stench." Piper said.

Everyone covers their mouths, trying to lessen the stench, the group makes their way toward the C.D.C. doors.

"Okay, keep moving. Stay together. Keep moving. Come on." Shane says.

"Shh." Rick says.

"Carol." Lori says.

"Shh." Rick says.

"Oh, God." Glenn says.

"Yeah, I bet there's no one here. We'd be lucky if there is. This place looks just like the inside of the city. Dead." Prue said.

"Shh." Rick says again for the third time.

They walk past the entrance and up through a parking lot. Tanks and more barriers are positioned around the entrance. Corpses lie everywhere.

An alarm beeps. Inside Jenner looks at a schematic of the building that's displayed on his monitor. Alarms are lit up at the entrance where the group is walking. Automatically the computer switches to live video. Jenner sees Rick and his group walking up to the building.

"No." Jenner says.

Outside they get closer to the doors. Everyone tries not to retch.

"Keep it together. Come on." Shane says.

"We're almost there, baby. Almost there." Lori says.

"Prue?, Piper?, Paige?, lets stay together." Phoebe says.

Rick tries the roll down security door.

"Nothing?" Shane asks. Shane pushes against it, pounds on the door.

It's growing dark quickly.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog says.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asks.

"Here, let me try and get a premonition." Phoebe said.

Phoebe walks to the door and puts her hands on it. She is sucked into a premonition.

 _A middle aged man in his shirt sleeves sits in a darkened room. He speaks into the camera and talks to persons unknown. He says "Jenner here. It's day 194 since Wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease abruptly went global. There's no clinical progress to report." The picture breaks off and back in. He's shuffling some papers._ Premonition ends.

"I just had a premonition." Phoebe said.

"What did you see?" Prue asks.

"A man, he was speaking into a camera. He said it was day 194 since something called Wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease went global. Then the picture of the guy broke off and came back in, like a videotape. Then he was shuffling some papers. Then the premonition ended." Phoebe said.

"So someone is here?" Rick said, a little excited.

"Unless it was of the past and they guy is no longer here." Phoebe said.

"Walkers!" Daryl said.

"Baby, come on." Lori said.

"You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl said.

"He made a call." Dale said.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl said.

"Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up. Shut up! Rick this is a dead end." Shane said.

"Prue, Piper, do something." Phoebe said. "You're the only ones with good active powers."

"Okay." Prue says and sends several walkers flying away from the group, causing them to splatter when they hit the ground. Piper blew up several walkers that had advanced after Prue sent the first few flying.

"Where we gonna go?" Carol asked.

"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane said.

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori said.

"We can't keep this up for too long more keep coming." Piper said, blowing up three walkers as Prue sent two more walker flying and splattering somewhere when they landed.

Paige sees some type of stick, laying on the a few feet away from the nearby wrecked tank. "Ugly metal stick thingy." Paige said orbing the stick into the heads of two walkers advancing towards them, sending both walkers flying as well.

"Fort Benning, Rick—still an option." Shane said.

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's a hundred miles." Andrea said.

"125. I checked the map." Glenn said.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight. Now." Lori said.

"We'll think of something." Rick said.

"Well, think quicker." Piper said, blowing up two walkers this time as her powers have started to drain. "I can't keep this up too much longer or my powers will drain."

Prue having switched to her eyes, yet only being able to send two walker flying again. "My powers are beginning to drain too, I won't be able to do this anymore."

"Let's get out of here." Shane said.

"Let's go. Please." T-Dog said.

Carl and Sophia are crying. People start back toward the cars.

Rick looks up at the camera and sees it moving.

"All right, everybody back to the cars. Let's go. Move." Shane said.

Piper was only able to blow up one walker this time as her powers have drained more this time. "Guys I can't do this anymore, my powers are draining too much."

Prue tried to send a walker, but was only able to send it flying a few feet. Causing no harm to the walker. "Same here, my powers are draining a lot as well." Prue said.

"If Prue and I keep this up, we'll be sending walkers back a few inches." Piper said, beginning to sweat. "That's it I can't. I'm exhausted." She said, backing up to the group putting her hands on her knees.

Prue backed up to the group as well, running her right hand through her hair. As both witches had handled most of the walkers, but not enough.

"The camera—it moved." Rick said.

"You imagined it." Dale said.

"It moved." Rick said.

"We can't use anymore magic right now. With two witches down, Paige and I need to conserve our strength." Phoebe said.

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane said.

Jenner watches them from inside.

"No, just go away." Jenner said.

"Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick. Rick, there's nobody there." Shane said.

"Shane's right Rick, we have walkers advancing and the two witches with the best active powers are down. We need to go." Paige said.

Rick fights past Shane and beats on the door.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." Rick said.

"Everybody get back to the cars now!" Shane says.

Rick still speaks to the camera. "Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

Lori runs up to Rick.

"Rick, there's nobody here." Lori says.

"We have nowhere else to go." Rick says.

"Keep your eyes open." Shane says.

Inside Jenner sees Rick pleading.

"If you don't let us in, you're killing us!" Rick says.

"Please!" Lori says.

"Come on, buddy, let's go." Shane says.

"Guys we need to go now." Prue yells to them.

Shane drags Rick away from the door. "Let's go."

"Please help us." Rick said. "You're killing us! Your killing us! Your killing us!"

Shane drags Rick away from the door just as it rolls up, blinding light beaming out from inside the C.D.C. and everyone turns around.

They stand in the light.

 **TO BE CONTINUED!**

 **STAY TUNED FOR TS-19!**


	7. TS-19

**A/N: Hey guys mdaCHARMED14 here, I hope you guys enjoyed 'Wildfire' and I also hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. I have some annoucements to make about some of my other stories. #1: 'A Witch's Tail Pt.1' will be worked on after this chapter is done. I think I found the inspiration to write it again. The original chapter I had halfway finished, I pulled it from my flashdrive and to my Windows computer, unfortunately half of what I had written was gone so I was crushed about that. #2: 'I've Got You Under My Skin' will be worked on soon as well. I also think I found inspiration to write that story again as well (Charmed Rewrite Season 1-3; Paige grows up with Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. As saying the witch/whitelighter rule never existed. But the Elders will still give Leo and Piper a hard time.) Enough about that now and on with the story. I hope you enjoy!**

 ***Check end of chapter for a few notes.***

The group is just outside the C.D.C. still standing in the light from the open doorway.

"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane says.

"Hello? Hello" Rick says.

"Close those doors. Watch for walkers." Dale said.

"Yeah we don't want to have to leave this place after the hell we went through to get here." Piper said.

The group enters and looks around at the lobby. It's completely empty.

"Hello?" Rick says.

A gun cocks. Jenner is standing in a doorway, a rifle in his hands. "Anybody infected?" He asks.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick says.

"Actually he was still alive when he decided that we leave him behind. He wanted to see his family again. But he could be dead now, or he could still be hanging on." Prue said.

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance." Rick says.

"You know food, sleep, maybe a bath or something." Paige said.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." Jenner says.

"We know." Rick says.

"It would be nice to get cleaned up and to get some sleep." Phoebe said.

Jenner looks at every one.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." Jenner said.

"We can do that." Rick said.

"Oh Dr. Williamson all over again." Prue says.

"Excuse me?" Jenner asked.

"A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Oroya Fever. Dr. Williamson, my doctor injected himself with our blood. Well mine, Prue's and Phoebe's blood and he ended up getting our powers and he started hurting innocents and we had to kill him, because he wouldn't drink the potion we made to remove our powers from him." Piper said, looking like she about to cry. Remebering what happened to Dr. Williamson made Piper sad. He was an innocent she lost, there was a way to save him but they ended up killing him.

"Look we are witches so, don't inject our blood into yourself. We don't wanna have to go through that experience again." Phoebe said.

Jenner lowers his weapon. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes it stays closed." He says.

They all run through the doors and follow Jenner into an elevator.

"VI, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." Jenner says.

"Rick Grimes." Rick said, putting his hand out for Jenner to shake.

Jenner looks away. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough." He said. "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you." He says to Carl. Carl smiles back at the doctor. Jenner chuckles.

When he looks away the smile on his face dies. Out of the elevator Jenner leads them down a hallway.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asks.

"A little." Carol says.

"I'm also claustrophobic." Paige says.

"Try not to think about it." Jenner says.

"Wait, she's claustrophobic, did either of you know?" Phoebe said to Prue and Piper.

"Nope." Piper said.

"I don't think so, she never said anything about it." Prue said, still tired out from the big power drainage from earlier. Piper seemed to be regaining a little energy, but not enough to use her powers like she did.

They enter the large darkened space Jenner had been in before.

"VI, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner says. A humming sound and beeping sound could be heard. "Welcome to Zone 5." He says.

"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked.

"I'm it. It's just me here." Jenner says.

"We thought there was a bunch of people here working to find a cure." Paige said

"What about the person you were speaking with? VI?" Lori asked.

"VI, say hello to our guests. Tell them… Welcome." Jenner says.

"Hello, guests. Welcome." Computer VI says.

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." Jenner says.

"Okay woah, we came all the way here expecting to find lots of people working on a cure, but instead we get one doctor and a talking computer. You've got to be kidding me." Prue said.

"I'm afraid not." Jenner says.

* * *

Jenner takes Andrea's blood for a sample. Everyone else is done. He has the blood from the sisters seperate from everyone else's blood.

"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." Andrea said.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough." Jenner said. The syringe clicks. "All done." He says.

"Ooh." Andrea says. She stands and starts to black out. Jacqui catches her.

"Are you okay?" Jenner asked.

"Mmm." Andrea says.

"She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have." Jacqui said.

"Yeah and if we don't eat soon, then we'll all die from starvation instead of walkers." Phoebe said.

Everyone, including Jenner, is seated at a large round table eating pasta and drinking wine. They're all laughing and having a good time.

"Fine." Lori said.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale said.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori says.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on." Rick says.

"Yeah come on, let the boy have a sip." Paige says.

Dale and Piper laugh.

"What?" Carl asks.

Dale hands Carl a glass with half an inch of wine in it.

"There you are, young lad." Dale said.

Everyone watches him.

"Eww." Carl said.

The adults laugh.

"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy." Lori says.

She pours his wine into her glass.

"Yuck. That tastes nasty." Carl says.

The laughing continues.

"Hey mom, can I try some if it." Sophia asked.

"I don't know, sweetie." Carol said.

"Come on Carol, let her try some." Phoebe said.

"Please mom, please?" Sophia said.

"Come on Carol, let her have a sip." Piper said.

"O-okay, but just a sip like Carl did." Carol said.

"Okay mom." Sophia said.

Dale hands Sophia a glass with half an inch of wine in it.

Everyone watches her sip some.

"Eww, that's gross." Sophia said.

The adults also laugh at her reaction too.

"That's right, good girl." Carol says, smiling at her daughter and kissing Sophia on her forehead.

"Well, just stick to soda pop there, kids." Shane says.

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl says.

"What?" Glenn asked.

"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Daryl said.

The men laugh.

"What about you Paige, why don't you wanna drink any wine?" Phoebe asked.

"I, um-I used to have a problem with certain liquids and I mean a problem with them." Paige said, nervously.

"Its okay honey, that's nothing to be embarrassed about." Phoebe said.

"Thanks for understanding." Paige said to her sister.

"Anytime." Phoebe said.

Rick sees that Jenner isn't enjoying the party. He takes his fork and taps his glass.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick said.

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog said.

"Hear hear!" Dale said.

"Here's to you, Doc, booyah!" Daryl said.

"Booyah!" Dale said.

"Woohoo!" Phoebe said.

"Thank you. Thank you, Doctor." Rick says.

"Booyah!" T-Dog says.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the Hell happened here, Doc? All the—the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Shane says.

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick says.

"Yeah Shane, come on celebrate now, ask questions later." Paige says.

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move—supposed to find all the answers. Instead we—" Shane says and chuckles. "we found him. Found one man, why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner said.

"Every last one?" Shane asks.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They… opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Jenner said.

"Oh my god, that's horrible. I mean they had good reason and it was their choice, but its sad to think about all the lives that were lost." Phoebe said.

"But you stayed here." Prue says. "Why's that?"

"Yeah why didn't you didn't leave or 'opt out'." Andrea says.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good." Jenner said.

"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man." Glenn said to Shane.

* * *

Jenner shows them the rest of the living area. "Most of the facility is powered down including housing so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies—if you shower, go easy on the hot water." He said to the group.

"Hot water?" Glenn asked.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog said. Both Glenn and T-Dog laugh.

A grin erupts on Phoebe's face and she takes off running to the nearest shower.

Piper knows what she's up too. "Oh know you don't." She calls to Phoebe and runs after her.

A knob squeals. Lori stands under the running water, ecstatic.

T-Dog lets the water run over his head in his shower and laughs.

Phoebe hangs her head back and lets the hot water run over her body. "Oh how I've missed this." She says.

Piper is doing the same in her shower. The feeling of hot water run over body got her excited a quite bit and her mind wondered off to thinking about what she and Leo would do, when he finally returns to her. She was lost deep in fantasy and moaned Leo's name, thinking of when they showered together and Prue walking in on them. She snapped back to reality knowing it would be awhile before they reunite and do anything together. She slides to the floor of the shower and cries.

Rick joins Lori while in his shower, he kisses her romantically. In his shower Shane drinks straight from a whiskey bottle. Andrea sits in her shower like Piper and cries.

Prue missed the feeling of hot water, but missed being clean even more and she lathered her hair in shampoo and then her body in soap and rinsed.

Paige just stands under the showerhead in her shower, trying to believe that this was real. "I hope this works out." She says to herself and glances towards the door. On the other side everyone was like her, trying to believe that this was happening.

* * *

Dressed, Rick walks down the hallway, drinking from a bottle of wine. He smiles as he passes Prue who had just finished showering.

"Hey." Prue says.

Prue continues walking but stops when she hears Piper in the shower across the hall.

Piper is vomiting in the toilet. She then sobs and cries.

"Piper?" Prue asks.

Piper vomits and sobs.

Prue goes in, to see her sister at the toilet being sick.

"That's it. That's it. Get it out. There you go." Prue said and reaches to hold Piper's hair back, while using her other hand to rub Piper's back.

"Oh… God." Piper says and flushes the toilet and sobs even more.

She backs away from Prue to lean against the wall. Prue comes over to her to comfort but Piper pushes Prue's hands away.

"Oh. Everything's gone." Piper said.

"The wine is always the best going down, but worse coming up isn't it?" Prue asks.

"Not that Prue. I mean everything's gone. Leo, the Elders, demons, the whole damn world; There's nothing left. Don't you see that? Piper asks her older sister, while still sobbing.

"Well, I see a life without demons and a chance to start a normal life. I know its tough, but this is destiny, this was coming no matter how much good we've done or innocents we saved." Prue says trying to comfort her younger sister.

Piper laughs sarcastically. "Oh my God, Prue! Didn't you see the look on Jenner's face? Listen to what I'm saying. There's nothing left." Piper says.

"Piper you're a witch with the power to freeze and blow up stuff. You're a Charmed One for crying out loud. You've battled demons for 3 and a half years. And don't forget you still have your sisters."

"You don't think I know that. Its just that I need Leo." Piper says.

"Piper, honey. The Elders can't keep you two apart forever. You two were meant for each other. He'll be back when the Elders let him." Prue says.

Piper continues to sob.

* * *

Rick and his bottle of wine join Jenner in the big room.

"How's the blood?" Rick asked.

"Well, everything looks good. Except with Paige, her blood is different from her sisters." Jenner says.

Phoebe walks in. "Hey, is the blood okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, just your sister Paige. Her blood is off." Jenner says.

"She's half-witch and half-whitelighter. Not to mention our half sister." Phoebe said.

"What's a whitelighter." Jenner asks.

"A guardian angel for witches. Piper's husband is a whitelighter, he had originally died in WWII. But, decided to save lots of men on the field over his friends and was allowed to be a whitelighter for the greater good." Phoebe said.

"So he's already dead, but was brought back as an angel or something?" Rick asked from where he was sitting.

"Yeah or something. But like I was saying our mom and her whitelighter fell in love, then had a baby. Paige had to be given up, because of the ' _witches and whitelighters not being allowed to fall in love_ ' law." Phoebe said.

"So that would make Paige half dead?" Jenner asked.

"Yeah I guess so." Phoebe said.

"Interesting." Jenner said.

Rick and Jenner continue talking as Phoebe leaves the room to find her sisters.

* * *

Carl, Carol, Sophia and Paige are in the rec room. The kids and Paige are playing a board game and Carol is reading a book. Lori comes in, smiling, a glass of wine in her hand. They look relaxed and happy. They smile when Lori walks in.

"Any good books?" Lori asked.

"Uh-huh." Carol says, closing the book. "Enough to keep us busy for years. All right. Come on, kids, it's bed time."

"Aww, five more minutes please Mom." Sophia asked.

"Yeah please." Carl said.

"I'm sorry, but Carol is right, you two should get some sleep, especially after what's happened." Paige said, getting up. "But don't worry, we can continue the game tomorrow. I'll put it somewhere, so it doesn't get messed up." She said to the two kids.

"Thanks Paige." Carl said.

"Yeah thanks." Sophia said.

"You're welcome. You two have a good night." She said patting them both on the shoulders.

"Baby, go say your prayers. I'm gonna browse a bit." Lori said.

"Come on." Carol said to Lori and Paige. "This is the first night we might actually get some real sleep." She said to the other two women.

"Hmm." Lori said.

"Carol, you are absolutely right." Paige said.

"It's a real miracle, isn't it?" Carol said.

Carol taps Sophia on the nose then leads them out into the hall that leads to their bedrooms. Paige follows them out the door and down the same hall where her bedroom she is sharing with her and sisters is.

* * *

The next morning Rick walks to the table where others are having breakfast.

"Hello." Rick said.

"Morning." Dale said.

"Good morning Rick." Phoebe said, smiling and giving a little wave.

Lori notices this and instantly felt like Phoebe was trying to get with Rick. She always got jealous when another woman would act so nice towards Rick or flirt with him. She could see Phoebe as the type of girl who would try and get with Rick even though he's married. Lori knew Phoebe wasn't like that, but it seemed like she could be.

"Are you hung over? Mom said you'd be." Carl asked.

"Mom is right." Rick says.

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori says.

"Eggs. Powdered, but—but I do 'em good." T-Dog said.

"Morning." Piper says, walking in with a few bags under her eyes.

"Piper, did you sleep well?" Paige asked her sister.

"No, I was up most of the night from a nightmare." Piper said.

Glenn moans.

"I bet you can't tell." T-Dog said.

"Piper, what was your nightmare about?" Phoebe asked. Piper looks at her give her the 'not now' face. "Okay maybe later." Phoebe says.

Dale laughs at Glenn's misery and T-Dog's teasing. Jacqui rubs Glenn's shoulders. T-Dog dishes out the eggs to all, including Glenn.

"Protein helps the hangover." T-Dog said.

Glenn moans again. This time Paige laughs at his misery along with Phoebe.

Rick holds up a bottle of aspirin.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked.

"Jenner." Lori said.

"Yeah its a great relief to eat something else than squirrels or rabbits, even fish. No offence Daryl." Phoebe said.

"Its okay, none taken. I completely understand, sometimes I feel the same way." Daryl said.

"Could you help me, please?" Rick asks Lori.

Lori opens the bottle for Rick "He thought we could use it." Lori said.

"Thank you." Rick says.

"Some of us, at least." Lori says.

Jacqui is comforting Glenn who has his head down, miserable.

"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn says.

"Hey." Shane says.

"Hey. Feel as bad as I do?" Rick says to Shane.

Shane walks to the table where the coffee pot and cups are.

"Worse." Shane says.

T-Dog sees the scratches on Shane's face and neck.

"What the Hell happened to you? Your neck?"

Shane looks puzzled.

"I must have done it in my sleep." Shane says.

"Never seen you do that before." Rick says.

"Me neither." Shane says. "Not like me at all." Looking at Lori.

Lori eats her food and doesn't look up.

"Well if you ask me, it looks sorta sketchy, I mean how do you scratch yourself like that in your sleep?" Prue says.

"I guess I managed to somehow do it." Shane says.

"Right." Prue says.

"Morning." Jenner says.

"Hey, Doc." Shane says.

"Morning to you too. Hope you had a good sleep." Paige said.

Everyone at the table greets the doctor.

"Doctor I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing—" Dale says but is cut off by Jenner.

"But you will anyway." Jenner says.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea says.

"Andrea's right, Jenner." Piper says, looking up from her half full plate of food and to the doctor standing at the other side of the table.

* * *

Jenner leads everyone into the big room. "Give me a playback of TS-19." Jenner says.

"Playback of TS-19." VI says.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner says.

"If I may ask what's TS-19?" Paige asks.

"Test subject 19." Jenner says and frowns a little. Phoebe notices the frown and is able to read him due to her empathy power.

Up on the wall an oversized display shows varying 3-D views of human skulls.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.

"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V." Jenner says.

'Enhanced internal view." VI says.

The main screen changes to show the upper shoulders and head of the subject. The screen skews to a horizontal view then increases the magnification. The image becomes more and more detailed. The magnification shows the Inside the skull. It appears to be lit with bright blue threads of energy. Some areas are denser with light than others but there are lighted threads throughout the skull. The detail zooms in until the threads become closer and pulses of light can be distinguished.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked.

"It's a person's life—experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you—the thing that makes you unique and human." Jenner says.

"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked.

"Those are synapses. Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." Jenner said.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked.

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil." Jenner says.

"This person died? Who?" Andrea said.

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected… and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, Scan forward to the first event." Jenner said.

"You loved TS-19 didn't you?" Phoebe asked the doctor confirming her power.

"Very much." Jenner said, gaining a frown and looking towards the floor. "How did you know that?" He asked, curious.

"Empathy power. I can feel your feelings, I can read them." Phoebe said. Jenner nodded at her.

"Scanning to first event." VI said.

The screen shows a message "Scanning Forward" The brain has lights still flickering in the outer areas but the center has become dark as if black roots were growing inside.

"What is that?" Glenn asked.

"Oh my god." Piper said.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone." Jenner said.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mother.

"Yes." Carol said.

Andrea's tears catch Jenner's attention.

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori said.

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." Jenner said to Andrea. "Scan to the second event." Jenner siad to VI.

"Scanning to second event." VI said.

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute… seven seconds." Jenner says.

A red glow flickers at the base of the brain. The rest remains dark. Random sparks shoot out into the larger area of the brain but no further lights grow.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori said.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving." Jenner said.

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

"You tell me." Jenner says.

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick says, shaking his head.

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." Jenner says.

The subject moves, its mouth opens and closes. The head moves side to side, the shoulders move as if the arms were being lifted. The barrel of a gun appears at the forehead pointing down. A bullet enters the brain and tears through the red cluster of embers. The brain goes completely dark, the subject stops moving.

"God. What was that?" Carol asked.

"My guess is that it was a bullet." Paige said.

"You shot your patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asked Jenner.

"VI, Power down the main screen and the workstations." Jenner said.

"Powering down main screen and workstations." VI says.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked.

"Of course he doesn't or he would of told us. Phoebe, use your empathy to read him." Prue said.

Phoebe concentrated her power and focused on Jenner. She then began feeling more of his feelings and emotions. "Prue you're right, he doesn't know what it is." She said, an angered but still straight expression grew on most of the group member's faces.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner said.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked.

"What about the wrath of evil, such as demons or the new Source?" Piper asked. The sisters knew there was another new Source but with the apocalypse, the Source stopped sending demons after them. As they haven't came across any yet either.

"There's those possibilities too." Jenner said.

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." Andrea said.

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked.

"There may be some. People like me." Jenner said.

"There has to be someone else. This place is still going at the moment, so maybe some place else more important could be running too." Phoebe said.

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives—all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month.?" Jenner said.

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Andrea said.

"Jesus." Jacqui said.

"But he said communications, directives, all of that is down and he has had no contact with anyone. Which means its possible there is someone else out there, just like him. Alone with no way to communicate with anyone." Paige said.

"She's got a point." Prue said.

At that moment, Piper saw Leo's figure standing in a far corner of the room.

"Prue. Phoebe. Paige. I see him again, he's back." Piper said.

"You see Leo again?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, look right there." Piper said, pointing to the corner of the room.

"Piper, honey. I don't see Leo over there." Prue said.

"Remember that she could be the only to see him." Phoebe said to Prue.

"That's right." Prue said.

"Man, I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again." Daryl said.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…that clock—it's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale said.

"The basement generators—they run out of fuel." Jenner said.

"And then?" Rick asked.

Jenner ignores the question and walks out of the big room.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." VI says.

"What does VI mean by decontamination?" Paige asked.

Phoebe leaned against a desk with a computer on it. Her upper back was leaned against the computer and she is sucked into a premoniton.

 _The clock is counting down. '3', '2', '1'. The premonition flashes to the whole CDC building going up in flames as it explodes._ The premonition ends.

"Oh my god." Phoebe said, with a scared look on her face.

* * *

Several of the group runs down stairs looking for the generators. Lights automatically come on as they enter the basement. The lights come on.

"Decontamination—what does that mean?" Glenn asked.

"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that." Shane asked.

"What's wrong with him? Seriously, man. Is he nuts, medicated, what?" T-Dog asked.

"I agree with T-Dog, there is something really off about him." Prue said. She then realized why Jenner is acting the way he is. "Oh my god! He could be a demon." She said getting really nervous.

"What?" Glenn asked.

"It makes perfect sense. The weird acting, plus me and my sisters lead here by fate. He has to be a demon." Prue said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shane asked.

"My sister Phoebe, her ex-husband. He was demon and he posed as an attorney so he could get near my sisters and I, so he could kill us. Jenner being a demon wouldn't be a surprise. I'll get Phoebe to check him out when we get back up there." Prue said.

Rick looks at a map on the wall, while listening to the conversation behind him.

"In there." Rick says.

The lights in the room come on when the door opens.

"Check that way. Rick says to Glenn and T-Dog. "Shane. Prue." He says to the former cop and the witch.

Shane and Prue follow Rick. They walk through the utility room looking for the generator. Rick finds a barrel with a hose coming out of it.

Rick sees the gauge reads almost empty. He tests the barrel. "It's empty." He says.

The generator clacks and the lights flicker and go out, different lighting comes on.

"Emergency lighting is on." VI says.

"What the Hell is this?" Shane asks.

"Whatever it is, its definitely not good." Prue says.

Glenn and T-Dog run up. "Hey, you guys kill the lights?" Glenn asks.

"Nah, it just went out." Shane says.

"Anything?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count." T-Dog says.

"It can't be down to just that one." Prue says.

* * *

Lori is in their bedroom waving her arms under an air vent, trying to feel a flow.

"Mom? Something wrong?" Carl asked.

"Uh, nothing. It's just…the air conditioning stopped." Lori says to her son.

* * *

Dale was curious about the book Phoebe and Paige were flipping through in the rec room. From what Dale could see from where he was, the book was big and looked heavy. The cover of the book was leather bound and dark green with some symbol on the front. The pages were old and worn out too.

"If you don't mind me asking what is that book?" Dale asked, curiously.

"Its our Book of Shadows. It contains spells, potion recipes, and entries on demons we've fought or have yet to fight." Phoebe says.

"Demons? What do you mean by demons?" Dale asked.

"Well there's the regular warlock that tries to kill witches for their powers and then you have upper level and lower level demons such as banshees, wendigoes, furies -" Phoebe says.

"Grimlocks. I could continue but the list is really, really long." Paige says.

"Dear god, you and your sisters have been through a lot." Dale says, shocked at how many demon the two sisters listed and implication that the list was even longer.

"Yeah, its a lot to process. Took a quite a bit to get used to being witches when we found out." Phoebe said.

"Yeah, considering half of my life I never even knew about it." Paige said.

"Our Grams bound our powers when we, meaning Prue, Piper and I were little so we could have a normal childhood. But she died from heart problems a few years ago, before we became witches and we were alone. We felt sort of abandoned , because there was no one to tell us of what was to come. We had to go through it by ourselves." Phoebe said.

"I'm sorry you lost your Grams." Dale said, not needing to ask whether it was before or during the current disaster as Phoebe had stated that it was before. Dale then exits the room, leaving the two sisters to continue on what they were doing.

* * *

Piper is out in the hall, Lori is, too. Jenner walks out a door

"Why is the air off?" Carol asks.

"And the lights in our room?" Lori asks.

"What aren't you telling us, doctor?" Piper asks, suspicious of the doctor. But Jenner walks past them and doesn't answer.

Back in the rec room, the lights go out.

"Why did the lights go out?" Phoebe said, trying to feel her way around for the book. "I can't find the book." She says, while staring in pitch black dark as the rec room had no windows to let light in.

"Don't worry I got it, here grab my hand. I'll orb us out." Paige said.

"Where is your hand?" Phoebe said, unable to see Paige's hand.

"Phoebe!" Paige says and Phoebe orbs out and back in next to her younger sister. Paige touches Phoebe's shoulder with one hand while holding the book in the other. Paige and Phoebe then orb out.

Daryl sticks his head out in the hall, he's still got a liquor bottle in his hand. "What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" He asks.

Jenner takes the whiskey bottle from Daryl without slowing down.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner says.

Dale has already entered the hallway from leaving the rec room. "Air isn't a priority? And lights?" He asks.

Jenner drinks straight from the bottle. "It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

Paige and Phoebe orb into the hallway. "Hey, why did the lights go out?" Phoebe asks.

"Apparently energy use is being prioritized, so air and lights must go out in order for this place to still run." Piper said, sounding annoyed.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asks.

Jenner keeps walking, everyone follows.

The power whirs downs.

"Hey, man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl asks.

Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, Shane and Prue come running to join them.

"You'd be surprised." Jenner says.

"Phoebe! Paige! Piper!" Prue says.

"What's wrong?" Paige asks.

Prue pulls her sisters to the side. "Prue what's going on?" Piper asks.

"I think Jenner maybe a demon. The way he was acting earlier and the fact the we ended up here with the Book of Shadows. Plus the power going out leading to decontamination." Prue says.

"It makes sense." Phoebe says. "And I know what decontamination means. I had a premonition." She says.

"Well, what did you see?" Paige asks.

"I saw that timer it was counting down 3, 2, and then 1. But the premonition changed to the CDC building exploding. I didn't see if any of us got out though." She says.

"Oh my god." Piper says. "What do we do?" She asks.

"I want Phoebe to use her powers and see if Jenner is a demon." Prue says.

"Wait, you're not gonna worry about getting all of us out of the explosion." Paige says.

"I wanna know if he's a demon. I don't want a repeat of Cole." Prue says.

Those words sting Phoebe a little bit. She knows that she is over Cole. She didn't feel anything when he got sucked into the Earth or when he was finally vanquished. But why is she feeling something now.

"Okay I'll use my powers to see what I get and I'll get back to you." Phoebe says.

"Thanks sis." Prue said.

The four of them resume following Jenner to wherever he's going.

"Rick?" Lori calls out to her husband.

He motions her to wait. Jenner walks down the stairs past Rick and the others and up the steps to the big room.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." Jenner says.

Jenner takes another drink from the bottle. He pauses at the steps that lead up to the work stations in the big room. Everyone has followed and is grouped around. Jenner hands the bottle to Daryl who angrily snatches it out of Jenner's hand.

"It was the French." Jenner says, looking to Andrea and then Piper.

"What?" Andrea asks.

"What about the French?" Piper asks.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution." Jenner says.

"What happened?" Jacqui asks.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner says.

"Let me tell you—" Shane says, but is cut off by Rick.

"To Hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick says.

"Oh, Okay." Jacqui said.

"Where's the Book?" Prue asked.

"I have it." Paige says.

"Ok good." Prue says.

An alarm blares.

"What's that?" Shane asks.

"What's going on?" Carl asks.

"30 minutes to decontamination." VI says.

"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl said.

Jenner scans his badge and enters code into a security pad.

"Daryl, you wanna know what's going on? Phoebe had a premonition. She saw that when the timer reaches zero, this place will explode. Apparently some information he decided not to tell us." Piper said, with an annoyed/aggravated tone in her voice.

"Oh my god." Rick said.

"Okay everybody, y'all heard Rick." Shane said, trying to take in the new in the information Piper had revealed.

"Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Rick says.

"Let's go." T-Dog says.

"Come on!" Glenn says.

"Everybody let's get out of here!" Phoebe says.

The security door leading the way back out of the CDC closes and locks. Rick runs toward it in a panic.

"No. Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn says.

Jenner broadcasts on the monitor. "We've hit the 30-minute window. I'm recording."

"Carl." Lori says.

"Mom!" Carl says.

Daryl makes a run at Jenner. "You son of a bitch!"

"Shane! Shane!" Rick says.

"You locked us in here!" Daryl says.

"No, stop! Don't!" T-Dog says.

"Daryl! Leave him alone, he's no good to us dead. We need him alive to open the door." Paige says.

"You lying—" Daryl says, but is cut off by Shane.

"No no no no!" Shane says.

Daryl tries to take Jenner but Shane and Rick pull him off.

"Wait! No! No, don't do it." T-Dog said.

"Daryl, just stop!" Paige says.

Rick holds Daryl back even as he threatens Jenner with the bottle.

"Wait, everybody stand back. I'm gonna blow this door up." Piper says.

"Piper, you're a genius!" Phoebe says, excited.

Prue, Phoebe, and Paige make sure that everyone is out of the way of the door. Piper then throws her hands up at the door to blow it up. However the door is not effected by her power. Piper throws her hands up at the door a second time, then a third time. But no success.

"Oh my god, my power isn't working on the door." Piper says, shocked and worried.

"Okay here let me try." Prue says and she waves her hand at the door and no effect. She squints her eyes but still nothing. "Mine aren't working either."

"Paige try orbing." Phoebe says.

"Okay." Paige says, nodding her head. She orbs out and towards the door, however only to be knocked back and her orbs bounce around the room. She finally orbs back in on her butt beside Piper. "Nothing." She says.

"Power of Four?" Piper asks.

"Won't work, we've tried our powers and they didn't work. What makes you think the Power of Four will work. Whatever this is, its blocking all magic from getting out." Prue says.

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick says.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Jenner says.

"Well, open the damn things." Dale says.

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way." Jenner says.

"Come on!" Daryl said.

"Jenner open the damn door." Piper says, angry. The color of her face had changed to a light red. A nearby computer explodes.

"Woah, okay Piper calm down. I know how you're feeling." Paige says.

"Calm down? You want to me to calm down? Paige don't you see, he's keeping us here to die and that means I'll never see Leo again." Piper says, seething with anger.

"I know how you're feeling." Paige says.

"Ahh!" Phoebe screams holding her head and she sinks to the floor on her knees. Her head feels like it could explode from Piper's rage.

"Paige you don't now how I feel, you wouldn't ever know how I feel. Leo is my husband. I am a good person, a good witch, and a hell of a good wife. The Elders took him away from me and now I may never get to see him again, because of this annoying ass doctor!" Piper shouts, causing two more computers to explode.

"Piper stop you're hurting Phoebe." Prue says.

"You stay out of this Prue." Piper snaps at her eldest sister.

"What is your problem?" Prue asked.

Phoebe still on the floor, is now crying in pain. Her face turns to a light pink-red. Paige rushes to her side. Everyone in the group watches the argument break out.

"My problem is that damn doctor. He's making it where I'll never Leo again." Piper shouts towards Jenner.

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Jenner shouts. He collects himself and sits back down at his station.

"In the event of a catastrophic power failure—in a terrorist attack, for example—H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out." Jenner says.

"H.I.T.s?" Rick asks.

"VI, define." Jenner says.

"H.I.T.s—high-impulse thermo baric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired." VI says.

"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner says.

Carol holds Sophia. Both of them are crying. Piper is crying as well and is hugging her eldest sister.

"An end to sorrow, grief…regret. Everything." Jenner says.

Daryl throws the liquor bottle at the door.

"Open the damn door!" Daryl says.

Shane runs at the door with a fire axe. T-Dog tosses one to Daryl. He catches it and they both try to destroy the door.

"You should've left well enough alone it would have been so much easier." Jenner says.

"Easier for who?" Lori asks.

"All of you. You know what's out there. A short brutal life and an agonizing death." Jenner says. "Your—your sister—what was her name?" Jenner asks Andrea.

"Amy." Andrea says.

The mentioning of Amy still rocks Prue, Phoebe and Paige. As she was an innocent that could've been saved, if they knew when she was to die. They could've kept Amy by them at all times, but death would've kept chasing her. They had to let her die.

"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that what you really want for your wife and son?" Jenner says. "Is that what you want for your sisters?" He asks, looking at the four women standing not far from him.

"I don't want this!" Rick says, emphatically.

"Neither do I." Prue says, looking at Jenner and a tear forms in her right eye.

"Can't make a dent." Shane says, swinging his axe.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner says. "And to withstand magic. There is a symbol with Latin writing on the other side of the door."

"Are you kidding me?" Piper shouts.

Phoebe begins to recover from Piper's second meltdown. If Piper keeps this up she will end up killing Phoebe.

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl said, swinging his axe.

Dale, Rick and Shane all hold Daryl back.

"Daryl's right." Piper said. "I'll blow you to pieces." She says, raising her hands to blow up Jenner.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Shane says.

"Piper! No!" Phoebe says.

"Daryl! Daryl!" Rick says.

"Piper, don't!" Prue says.

T-Dog takes the axe away from Daryl.

Paige gets behind Piper and pulls both of her arms behind her.

"Stop, let go of me!" Piper says.

"No, we need him to open the door." Paige says.

"Just back up! Back up the both of you!" Rick says.

"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner says.

"What?" T-Dog asked.

Lori's face registers shock to hear this.

"What? You really said that? After all you're big talk?" Shane says, becoming aggravated.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick says.

"There is no hope. There never was." Jenner says.

"Rick..." Phoebe says, a frown forms on her face from disappointment.

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here but somebody somewhere—" Rick says, but is cut off by Andrea.

"What part of "Everything is gone" do you not understand?" Andrea asks.

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner says.

"You said Paige's blood was different from Prue's, Piper's and my blood. It was because she's half-whitelighter, so she's half-dead. Maybe she could be a possible cure, wouldn't you want that to be true." Phoebe says.

"Wait...what?" Paige asks, now confused.

Jenner looks away towards the timer.

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol says.

"One tiny moment—a millisecond. No pain." Jenner says.

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Carol says.

"Please just let us go." Phoebe says.

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate just to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asks.

He talks to Carol and Phoebe, but Jacqui seems to agree with what she hears.

A gun cocks. Shane has come back with his shotgun.

"Shane, no!" Rick says.

"Oh my god Shane!" Prue says.

Rick tries to intercept Shane but Shane pushes him away.

"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?" Shane says.

Shane has his shotgun in Jenner's face.

"Shane don't do this or we will be trapped here." Phoebe says.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick says.

"Shane, you listen to them." Lori says.

"It's too late." Shane says.

"He dies, we all—" Rick says.

Shane is yelling at this point. He points the gun at Jenner's face then, yelling, he shifts his aim to a computer monitor and shoots again and again, screaming all the time.

"— we all die! Shane!" Rick says. "Shane!"

"Shane just stop!" Paige says.

Rick struggles to take the gun away from Shane. He hits Shane across the head with the butt and throws an elbow into Shane's shoulder. Shane grunts and falls. Rick runs at him. He feints with the shotgun butt, ready to hit him again to keep him down.

"Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick asks, panting.

He shows Shane that he's ready to use the shotgun as a weapon again.

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane says.

Rick hands the gun to T-Dog. Everyone is looking to Rick. He looks around. Calmly he assesses all that's happened.

"I think you're lying." Rick says.

"What?" Jenner asks.

"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?" Rick says.

"Yeah, why? You implied last night that Paige's blood could be a cure." Phoebe says.

"It doesn't matter." Jenner says.

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick says.

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." Jenner says, pointing to the screen. "To her. My wife." He says.

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asks.

"I already knew that. My empathy power decided to butt in earlier." Phoebe says. Lori just looks at her with a 'are you trying to be a smartass face?'.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" Jenner says.

Daryl uses the axe on the door. Piper starts using her exploding power on the door.

"She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just… Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me." Jenner says.

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's—that's all we want—a choice, a chance." Rick says.

Daryl and Piper grunt.

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori says.

"Please doctor, let us go. You wouldn't want to take out a possible cure would you?" Phoebe says.

"Okay, why do you keep saying that I'm a possible cure." Paige says, getting annoyed that she doesn't know anything about their conversation. Phoebe looks at her and mouths "I'll tell you later."

"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner says. Jenner walks back to the security pad and unlocks the door Daryl has been beating on and Piper has been trying to blow up.

"Come on!" Daryl says.

"Prue! Phoebe! Paige! Let's go now." Piper says.

"Right behind you." Paige says, holding the Book of Shadows.

When the doors open everyone rushes to leave. Everyone except Jacqui.

"Let's go!" Glenn says.

"Move it! Move it!" Daryl says.

"Let's go, let's go!" Phoebe says. Prue follows right behind her.

"Stay right by me." Carol says to Sophia.

"Come on let's move it!" T-Dog says.

"Come on, let's go!" Daryl says.

"We're gonna get out of here, Sophia!" Carol says.

"There's your chance, take it." Jenner says.

"I'm grateful." Rick says.

"The day will come when you won't be." Jenner says.

"Let's go!" Glenn says.

Jenner takes Rick's hand to shake it and Jenner pulls Rick in close. Jenner whispers something into Rick's ear. Lori runs back and drags Rick out.

"Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn says.

T-Dog is leading Jacqui. "Let's go. Let's go." T-Dog says.

"No no. I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie." Jacqui says.

"But that's insane!" T-Dog says.

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in the long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue. And no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out." Jacqui says.

Everyone stops when they hear T-Dog yelling at Jacqui. She says this last to all of them. Jacqui pushes T-Dog away.

"Dog, come on, man. Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" Daryl says.

Shane takes T-Dog by the arm and leads him up the ramp. Dale gestures for Jacqui to come, too, but she shakes her head, folds her arms tightly against her and turns her back. She doesn't give Dale an opening to persuade her. He looks over to Jenner and sees Andrea's there.

"I'm staying too." Andrea says.

"Andrea, no." Dale says.

She turns her back and sits down

"Just go! Go!" Dale says to the rest of the group.

"Come on." Shane says.

Everyone but Jenner, Jacqui, Andrea and Dale run up the stairs to the ground level. Back in the big room Dale literally gets on his knees and pleads with Andrea.

"Andrea, this isn't what Amy would want for you." Dale says.

Andrea won't look at Dale. "She's dead, and you need to leave." Andrea says.

Up in the lobby T-Dog and Daryl run for the doors, banging against them.

"Get them doors open!" Glenn says.

"Come on!" T-Dog says.

"It doesn't work!" Glenn says.

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute." Rick says.

T-Dog tries the electronic security pad beside the door. "Try it! Try it! Try it now!"

"Daryl!" Shane says.

"Here let me." Piper says.

Daryl tosses the axe to Shane. They both start hitting the glass but it doesn't break.

Piper tosses her hands up and the glass doesn't blow up. She tries again and this time it does explode. "Haha! That's what I thought." She says, smirking.

"Stay close, sweetheart." Carol says to Sophia as they all head to the window.

Shane and Daryl grunt.

Back into the big room. The clock has counted down to 003:10. Dale, holding Andrea by the arm, is still hoping to talk her out of staying.

"Time's almost up." Andrea says.

In the big room Dale sits down. "Okay. You win." He says and sits down in a chair near her.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asks.

"I said okay." Dale says.

"Don't pull this, Dale." Andrea says.

"I'm not pulling anything. If you're staying I stay too. He's right. We know what's waiting for us out there. I don't want to face it alone." Dale says.

"Dale, get the Hell out. I don't want you here." Andrea says.

"Too bad. See, you don't get to do that, to—to come into somebody's life, make them care and then just check out. I'm staying. The matter is settled." Dale says.

Outside the group runs to their vehicles.

Some walkers are growling. Piper blows up one walker while Shane and Rick shoot down the rest of the walkers that are in their path. Daryl takes one's head off with his axe and then grunts.

Rick who's panting, leads the way. Carl and Lori are right behind him.

Rick gets the R.V. keys and starts the engine. Lori points.

"Wait wait wait. Wait wait. They're coming." Lori says.

Andrea and Dale jump down out of the building.

Inside, in the big room. Jenner and Jacqui watch them on the monitor.

"They got out." Jenner says. Jenner and Jacqui then share a smile.

Andrea and Dale run for the R.V. Rick checks his watch. In the big room the clock counts down to less than ten seconds. Jacqui takes Jenner's hand. They spend their last moments looking into each others eyes.

"Come on." Lori says.

The horn honks.

"Dale, get down! Down!" Lori yells.

"Get back! Everybody down! Down!" Rick shouts.

Dale and Andrea take shelter behind the sand bag cordon out by the guard shack. T-Dog, Shane, the sisters, everyone ducks down in their vehicle. A huge fireball builds up inside the C.D.C. building until it fills the entire place. The heat blasts out the windows, setting fire to everything around it, exploding tanks, cars, trucks, everything it touches. The explosion expands until the roof disintegrates and the building implodes on itself. Glenn, Rick, Lori and Carl get up from the R.V. floor and see the remains. Dale peers over the sand bag wall. T-Dog rises up from his seat. Carol and Sophia look up from the Cherokee, Daryl from his truck, Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige from their SUV.

Daryl exhales and looks around. Shane looks up. Everyone is shocked at the destruction. Behind the sand bags Dale reaches down to Andrea.

"Come on come on." Dale said.

Glenn opens the R.V. door. "Get in, get in, get in. get in!"

Lori is speechless at the destruction. Andrea sits down, crying and gives Dale a look of anger. Dale looks back at her but has to look away, sorry for the grief she feels. Rick drives the R.V. away, Rick looks shaken. Lori sees this and gets scared. Rick looks at her, collects himself and concentrates on driving, determined. The five cars turn around and drive back up the road they'd come down on.

The sisters are shocked more than the others. They are now reeling with the emotions of losing another innocent in the process of escaping for their own lives. Even though it was Jacqui's choice to stay. The sisters can't help but feel somewhat responsible for her staying. The information of demons being real, plus the walkers is a lot to take in.

The burning of the C.D.C. sends a column of black smoke high up into the Atlanta sky.

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**

 **STAY TUNED FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD!**

 ***The reason this chapter took so long, was because my Acer laptop had a program installed that I didn't know about and it brought several programs with it all of which have been uninstalled. But after that happened Chrome got messed up and every website I went to had random words all over the page including history, bookmarks, and settings. But I reinstalled Chrome without uninstalling it and it fixed the random word problem however, my laptop then started running slow and laggy. For example when I move files from one folder to somewhere else or highlight multiple files it lags and finally moves and the scrolling of webpages will lag at one part and then start scrolling all the way down. But I finally got the chapter done! So I hope you guys enjoy and I'm really sorry for the wait.**

 ***Chapter Notes:**

 **The scene where Dale finds Andrea crying and vomiting in the toilet, I replaced with Prue and Piper because I want this story to feature sisterly moments between each sister. One chapter had Prue and Phoebe with the necklace, now Prue trying to comfort Piper, so I still have to include in future chapters moments for Prue/Paige, Piper/Phoebe, Piper/Paige, and Phoebe/Paige. Now the scene with Dale and Andrea still happened but, it was off-camera (off-story, not sure how to word that.)**


	8. What Lies Ahead

**A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed TS-19! And enjoying the story so far! So for the long wait, with school and all. Its becoming a lot harder to write for this story, plus every day for the past 2 weeks I've been getting home and falling asleep real early, which is becoming a real pain the butt. Like I said I'm really sorry for the long wait. At the end of this chapter will come a big surprise and the credit of the idea goes to collussus96, go check him or her out if you'd like (btw really sorry again collussus, I keep forgetting to ask if you are a boy or girl. I'm really really really sorry.) Now enough of my rambling and on with the chapter.**

 ***See end of chapter for several notes.***

The group were driving down a highway; weaving through a whole bunch of wrecked cars. The RV then comes to sudden stop, causing the cars behind it to stop as well.

"I said it." Dale says. "Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." He says, stepping out of the RV.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asks, stepping out behind Dale.

"What's going on?" Piper asks, walking over from the SUV.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of- Okay, that was dumb." Dale says.

"Can't find a radiator hose here." Shane says.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl says.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog says.

"Maybe some water." Carol says, as the rest of the group gathers around.

"Or food." Glenn says.

"How about clothes?" Paige asks.

"This is a graveyard." Lori says. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"I agree with them, we should search these cars and see what supplies we can find, so we can stock up for our trip to Fort Bennett." Prue says.

"All right, all right, here we go." T-Dog says.

"Come on, y'all." Shane says. "Just look around, gather what you can."

"You heard him, get to looking." Phoebe says.

Everyone begins heading off in separate directions to search for supplies.

Paige walks over to a Chevy Impala. She looked in the inside and saw the corpses of two men in the front seats and a revolver between them. Paige opens the door and tries to reach across, unfortunately not reaching it. She then hovers across the corpse in the driver seat and grabs the gun. Paige pulls back, only to pull the man's corpse with her. She falls to the ground and lets out a small scream as the man's corpse hovers above her. She pushed him back in and closed the door. Paige runs back to the group with her treasure.

"Where did you find that?" Piper asks.

"In that Impala over there and its only missing two bullets." Paige says.

"Nice find, now go give it to Dale." Shane says, walking over after eavesdropping.

"But, I want to keep this." Paige says. "I want to learn how to shoot."

"Fine I'll teach how to shoot that gun when the time comes, but the less guns we have floating around camp, the better. One wrong shot and we could have a bunch them lined up. Best we let Dale keep all the guns accounted for." Shane says.

"Okay, but this is my gun though." Paige says.

"That's fine. Just give it to Dale so he can hold on to it." Shane says.

"Okay then." Paige says and walks away to find Dale.

Lori walks past a car with a corspe in the passenger seat, she keeps walking with Carol and Phoebe behind her.

"Kids, don't look." Carol says.

"Lori was right. This is a graveyard." Phoebe says, frowning

Carol and Phoebe begin looking through the trunk of a car. Carol is holding a red shirt up to her torso. Phoebe holds a pair of maroon colored pants up to her lower body. They look up and see Lori staring at them with a grim expression on her face.

"Ed never let me wear nice things like this." Carol says and tosses the shirt back.

"Woah, woah, wait. If you like that shirt take it. I don't care what any of you think. I'm taking these pants. So if you want that shirt then take it." Phoebe says and looks at Carol with a 'go ahead' face.

"Okay Phoebe." Carol says and grabs the shirt back from the trunk. "Thanks." She says looking at Phoebe.

"Anytime." Phoebe says, smiling.

"We're gonna need clothes." Carol says.

Lori walks over to the trunk Carol and Phoebe were at. "Hey, Carl." She says. Carl looks at his mother. "Always within my sight, okay?" She says to him. Carl nods at her.

"You too, Sophia." Carol says to her daughter. Sophia slightly nods at her. Phoebe is still holding clothes up too her body and taking the ones that she likes.

Prue and Paige were searching through a wrecked red SUV. Paige pulls out a faded blue suitcase and opens it. "OoOohhh, here you go Prue." Paige says and pulls a lingerie outfit from the suitcase.

"Oh please Paige, when in the apocalypse are you going to need lingerie?" Prue asks.

"What? So you're telling me that sex is gone in this world now?" Paige says.

"No, I just think that sex isn't a major priority anymore." Prue says.

"Oh well that's a shame since, the last you did it was two years ago with what's his name...Bane Jessup." Paige says, giggling. Prue looks at glares at her. "Oh yeah, I heard the story Phoebe told me." She says.

"Did you really have to mention him?" Prue asks.

"Yes. " Paige says, laughing a little louder.

"Oh be quiet." Prue says.

"Fine." Paige says, tossing the lingerie back into the car.

Dale was on top of the RV looking in his binoculars and he sees a herd of walkers coming. Rick sees this too in his rifle scope. Piper is with them and sees the look on his face.

"Rick, what's wrong?" Piper asks.

"Walkers, lots of them." Rick says.

"Oh my god." Piper says.

Rick and Piper run ahead and find Lori and Phoebe. "Lori, Phoebe, under the cars." He sees Carl, Sophia, Prue, and Paige. "Carl, Sophia, Prue, Paige, get down now." Rick says. "Come on Piper." He says grabbing her wrist.

Carl gets under a car and Phoebe follows him and gets under on the other side. Prue and Paige get under the same car. Sophia gets under a car by herself. Lori and Carol are together and Rick and Piper are under another car.

"Shh shh." Lori says to Carol, who is on the verge of crying and screaming for her daughter. "Get under." Lori says to her.

"Ow." Glenn says as Shane pulls him away from a car and pushes him to the ground to get under a truck.

"What?" Glenn whispers.

"Shh." Shane says.

Andrea is messing with her gun and looks up slowly and out the window. She sees lots of walkers passing by. "Oh!" Andrea whispers and goes to the floor.

Each walker is either groaning, moaning, growling, grunting, or snarling.

Carol looks to Sophia who closes her eyes tightly twice, indicating to her mom that she is scared. Carol whimpers and Lori covers Carol's mouth. "Shh. Shh." Lori says to Carol.

Carl starts shaking a little bit and whimpers once. Phoebe notices this and rubs and pats his back, trying to calm him down. "Shh, shh, it'll be okay. Don't worry, we'll be just fine." Phoebe whispers to him and he calms down some. Lori sees this and nods her head at Phoebe who nods her head back at Lori. Phoebe is then sucked into a premonition.

Premonition. _Rick, Shane, and Prue look on in awe. Someone who's identity isn't revealed, is walking up to a deer. The deer looks in the person's direction and 'BANG', a shot rings out and the deer falls and so does the person. Rick screams "NOOO" and the premonition ends._

"Oh my god." Phoebe whispers.

"What?" Carl asks.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Phoebe says.

Carl nods. Prue sees the look on Phoebe's face, she can tell that Phoebe just had a premonition. Prue stares at Phoebe, who then mouths to her "I tell you later." Prue nods at her.

As all of the walkers have seem to have passed by. Sophia begins to slide out from under the car. A walker sees her and goes after her. She begins to climb out from the other side and another walker goes after her. Sophia runs into the woods with the two walkers chasing her. Rick slides out from under his car and chases after Sophia and the walkers.

Carol climbs out from under the car and runs to side of the road. "Lori. There's two walkers are after my baby." She says, sobbing and crying.

"Shh shh." Lori says and covers Carol's mouth again so the walkers up ahead can't hear her.

"Carol, don't worry Rick will bring Sophia back." Prue says.

Rick gets to Sophia and grabs her. "Shh shh! Are you all right? Are you okay?" He says to her.

"Shoot them!" Sophia says.

"No. No! Those walkers on the road would hear it. Then it wouldn't be just two, it'd be hundreds. Come here. Come on." Rick says.

The walkers continue to follow them, not wanting to lose their meal.

"All right, just hold here. You stay there. Wait." Rick says and jumps into the shallow bit of water. The water splashes. "Come on. Sophia, you have to do exactly as I say. Hide in there. Squeeze in tight. I'll draw them away from you." He says to her.

"No no, don't leave me." Sophia says sobbing.

"Listen listen listen listen. They don't get winded. I do. I can only deal with them one at a time. I wouldn't be able to protect you. This is how we both survive. You understand? Okay?" Rick says to the little girl. Sophia nods her head. "Go go go go. If I don't make it back, run back to the highway, back to the others straight the way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." Rick says to her.

Rick screams at the walkers and he leads them away from Sophia.

A little while later, Rick, Prue, Daryl, Shane, and Glenn are back at the spot where Rick left Sophia.

"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asks.

"I left her right here. I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." Rick says.

"Without a paddle- seems where we've landed." Daryl says.

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Rick says.

"I wish I didn't have to say this but, this is similar to the Merle situation back in Atlanta. He didn't wait and he lost his hand. Now Sophia, she could've waited on Rick. Yet she didn't which means she could lose more than her hand." Prue says.

"She's right." Shane calls down to them.

"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Daryl says.

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane says.

"Shane, do you want to be out here?" Prue asks. Shane just looks at her with a 'don't start with me' face. "Don't you give me that look." She says, glaring at Shane.

"She understood me fine." Rick says, looking up at his best friend.

"Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." Shane says.

"Okay, what is with you and being negative in these situations. You either want to blow someone's head off or you just want to give up and leave someone behind." Prue says to former cop getting angry.

"What's your problem with me?" Shane asks.

"My problem is the way you're acting." Prue says.

"You think that just because you're a witch, that you get to tell us all what to do." Shane says.

"Uh, no. I'm focused on finding this little girl, you however are to busy having your head up your ass." Prue says and her anger causes a tree branch to fall nearby.

"Look the both of you stop fighting. We need to find Sophia." Rick says.

"Got clear prints right here. She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out, make our way back. She couldn't have gone far." Daryl says.

"Hey, we're gonna find her. She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere." Shane says.

"She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." Daryl says.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asks.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane says.

"A walker?" Glenn asks.

"Or maybe an animal?" Prue asks.

"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers." Daryl says.

"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane says.

"No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." Rick says.

"Rick's right, we don't need anybody else running off and getting lost." Prue says.

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." Shane says. Glenn follows behind Shane as he walks off.

Daryl, Rick, and Prue head off in another direction in search of Sophia.

Back on the highway, Shane is using one the cars to push a wrecked car out of the way, while Andrea uses the steering wheel to steer it out of the way.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" Carol asks.

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the R.V. turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map." Dale says.

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess." Shane says.

"Shane's right, it will take forever to moves these cars." Paige says.

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol says.

"Hey, that goes without saying." Lori says.

"Rick, Prue, and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time." Shane says.

"We'd never leave Sophia behind, she's one of us. No matter how long it takes, Prue won't give up. Neither will Rick and Daryl. But in the mean time, you're just gonna have to stay strong and have faith. You don't want you're daughter coming back to see her mother all weak and tired." Phoebe says to Carol, who chuckles a bit. "In the mean time, get some rest and stay strong for her." She says, rubbing Carol's back.

"Thanks Phoebe, you know just what to say." Carol says and hugs Phoebe and then walks to the RV.

"Well it can't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea says, tossing a water bottle to Glenn.

"You and me both, woman." Piper says, chuckling just a bit to which Andrea gives her a half-smile.

"Yeah, what was that? All of them just marching along like that." Glenn says.

"A herd. That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." Shane says. He then exhales. "Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on." Shane says.

Everybody goes back to doing their chores. Carol lays down on the bed in the back of the RV, only to start crying.

Continuing their search in the woods. Rick, Daryl and Prue follow Daryl as he keeps walking along.

"Tracks are gone." Rick says.

"I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Rick." Prue says.

"No, they're faint, but they ain't gone. She came through here." Daryl says, pointing at the ground ahead of him.

"How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass." Rick says.

"You want a lesson in tracking or you want to find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl asks.

"Let's just focus on finding Sophia." Prue says.

"Shane!" Carl says, running over to where Shane is.

"Carl, what happened?" Lori asks, running over with Piper behind her.

"I found something cool." Carl says.

"Found what exactly?" Piper says, now standing beside Lori.

"Check it out. It's an arsenal." Carl says, really excited and proud at his find.

"That's cool, bud. Go give 'em to Dale." Shane says.

"Check this one out. Whoa, it's a hatchet."Carl says.

"Be careful. Don't play with those." Lori says.

"They're really sharp." Carl says, swinging the hatchet lightly.

"What did I just say?" Lori asks.

"Can I keep one?" Carl asks.

"Are you crazy?" Lori asks.

"No way. Shane. Shane, tell her to let me keep one." Carl says. Shane keeps working on the car. Carl turns to Piper. "Piper tell her." He says looking at the witch.

"I wouldn't mind if you had one, but that decision isn't up to me." Piper says, putting her hands on her hips.

"You're kidding?" Carl asks.

"Hey, man, go give them all to Dale now. Go." Shane says, with a harsh tone. Carl looks at Shane as if he betrayed him and then grabs the arsenal and walks off to Dale.

"Lori what was that?" Piper asks.

"What was what?" Lori asks.

"The way you just treated him." Piper says.

"Oh, so I'm supposed to let him have everything he wants. You're not his mother, you can't make those decisions for him." Lori says, getting angry at the woman in front of her.

"I never said I was. But I do think that he should carry some sort of protection with him. What if he got into trouble with a walker or more, he would need something to defend himself with or else he's gonna end up getting killed." Piper said.

"He doesn't need anything to defend himself, he has the group to protect him." Lori says, crossing her arms.

"Oh yeah, what if it was Carl out there and not Sophia, how do you suppose the group protects him then." Piper says, her hands still on her hips.

"He is mine and Rick's son, not your's. So why don't you just leave me alone. If I don't want my son handling weapons then I won't let him until he's mature enough." Lori says, on the verge of crying.

"When are you gonna realize that this world is different, that its not like it used to be. Anything could happen at anytime, just like that herd that passed by. Don't you want your son to be safe and be able to protect himself?" Piper asks.

"Of course I do, its just I don't think he's ready yet." Lori says.

"Whatever, there's no used in trying to argue with you." Piper says, walking off to find her sisters.

"What was that?" Shane asks.

Lori doesn't respond to him and she just shakes her head.

"She's right you know." Shane says.

Lori still doesn't respond.

"Whatever, that's why I'm prepping my new ride. I'm leaving." Shane says, shutting the hood of the car.

"Leaving?" Lori asks, shocked.

"As in gone for good. Gonna quietly slip away first chance I get." Shane says and goes to start the engine. When the car starts, the radio comes on and begins talking.

"The emergency alert system has been activated. The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message: Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. This is a civil emergency." The radio says.

Glenn, Dale, Andrea, Phoebe and Paige run over to where Shane and Lori are.

"Is that a local signal?" Glenn asks.

"It's got to be within 50 miles of here." Dale says.

"That means a tower is up with electricity, especially for the station to broadcast. Someone one could be alive." Paige says.

"No it doesn't. There could be a back-up generator running, no one turned off. Then that's how the station is broadcasting." Phoebe says.

"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way. The emergency alert system has been activated." The radio says.

Shane turns off radio. "Asshole. Okay, let's get back to work."

* * *

In the woods. There are some leaves that rustle, causing Rick, Daryl, and Prue to crouch and Daryl whips his crossbow out and aims. Rick points ahead and they move forward and see a walker walking along. Daryl gives them some hand signals and they move out. Rick and Prue run ahead a few feet in front of the walker. The walker sees Rick and Prue and growls loudly. Daryl whistles and shoots the walker in the back of the head with an arrow.

"Sophia!" Daryl calls out.

"Sophia, can you hear me. Sophia!" Prue calls out.

Rick squats down and puts a pair of gloves on.

"What are you looking for?" Daryl asks.

"Skin under the fingernails." Rick says. Daryl and Prue lean down for a closer look.

"It fed recently. There's flesh caught in its teeth." Rick says, trying to pull the flesh from the walker's teeth.

"Oh my god, you don't think that the walker...you know to Sophia?" Prue says, as her heart starts racing and her eyes get watery.

"Let's hope not." Rick says.

"Yeah, what kind of flesh?" Daryl says.

"Only one way to know for sure." Rick says.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're gonna cut it open." Prue says.

"We have to be sure." Rick says.

"Okay well I'm not staying to smell. I'll keep watch." Prue says.

"Okay. That's fine. I understand, I don't wanna cut it open either. But we need to know." Rick says.

"He's right." Daryl says.

"Yeah, I know. I'm gonna keep watch." Prue says, and walks a little bit away from the guys.

Rick takes his knife and aims at the walker's bare stomach.

"Here, I'll do it. How many kills you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mine is sharper." Daryl says, and aims his knife over the walker's stomach. He grunts as he slices into the skin. Prue can hear the noises of the knife cutting through the walker. She cringes from the sounds.

"Now comes the bad part." Daryl says and sticks his hands inside the walker's stomach. Prue looks over shoulder to see Daryl digging around inside the stomach. An odor had began filling the around the three group members. Prue holds her nose trying not to puke as Rick looks away from the sight. Daryl however doesn't looked fazed by it.

"Yeah, Hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." Daryl says as his hands are deep inside the stomach of the walker. Prue is still covering her nose but ends up puking on the ground next to her.

"Do you really have to add to the stench in the air?" Daryl asks.

"Sorry, but I couldn't hold it in." Prue says.

Daryl grunts and pulls something out. "Here's the gut bag." He says.

"I got this." Rick says, panting. Prue comes over from watching out for signs of walkers or people, without finding any. She still covers her nose trying to avoid puking again. Rick takes his knife and cuts into the gut bag. Daryl and Rick begin poking around in the contents of the gut bag. Rick pulls something out and tosses it to the side. However it flies towards Prue's foot. She's quick to see this and use her hand to send the bloody flesh towards a tree.

"Watch where you're throwing that stuff." Prue says, annoyed.

"Sorry." Rick says.

Daryl has something on his knife which resembles a head, or whats left of one. "This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." He says.

"Thank god! I was really nervous that we would find what was left over of Sophia in there." Prue says, a little ray hope shining in both of her eyes.

"At least we know." Rick says.

"At least we know." Daryl says.

Rick, Daryl and Prue head back towards the highway as its getting late.

* * *

Back on the highway. Andrea and Piper walk over to Carol, who was standing at the guard rail waiting for Rick, Daryl, and Prue to hopefully return with Sophia. Andrea and Piper put a hand on one of Carol shoulders. She glanced at both women who came over.

"It's late. Gonna be dark soon. " Carol says.

"They'll find her." Andrea says.

"Rick, Daryl, and Prue won't leave Sophia out there." Piper says.

Andrea and Piper then walk off. Piper goes to stand with Phoebe and Paige.

"How's she doing?" Paige asks.

"Hard to say. Who's knows what she must be feeling." Piper says.

"I know how she's feeling." Phoebe says, frowning. "So many emotions keep running through my body and to my heart. Its feels like a heartbreak multiplied by ten." She says, holding a hand over her heart.

"Poor woman. I know how Sophia must be feeling. She lost her parents. Ed's dead, but even though Carol's alive, she still lost her. Taking it as I've lost two sets of parents." Paige says.

"I feel sorry. I feel like I could've done something. I mean I could've frozen the scene and she would still be here." Piper says.

"Oh honey, you couldn't have known this was gonna happen. It happened fast too, none of us could react in time." Phoebe says.

"Yeah I guess you're right. Phoebe and I will look in the Book and see if there's anything we can use to help find Sophia, also so I can get Phoebe away from everyone so she doesn't get too overwhelmed with emotion. Paige, keep an eye on everyone, especially Carol. Yell if you need us." Piper says.

"Got it." Paige says. Piper and Phoebe walk off to get the book.

Andrea walks up to Dale and Glenn. "Where's my gun? You have no right to take it."

"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asks Andrea.

"My father gave it to me. It's mine" Andrea says.

"I can hold onto it for you." Dale asks.

"Or you can give it back to me." Andrea says.

Shane walks over to Dale and Andrea. "Everything cool?" He asks.

"No, I want my gun back." Andrea says.

"I don't think it's a good idea right now." Dale says.

Paige sees the argument and walks over. "Okay, what is going on?" She asks.

"Dale took my gun and refuses to give it back." Andrea says, answering the witch's question.

"Why not?" Paige asks.

"I'm not comfortable with it." Dale says and scoffs.

"Okay, look Dale you have no right to take her gun and refuse to give it back. It doesn't belong to you. It would be like if one of you took our book." Paige says.

Piper and Phoebe run over to Paige. "Book's missing." Piper says, worried and scaried at the same time.

"What?!" Paige asks, shocked.

"Yeah, we went to the car to get it, so we could see if there was a way to find Sophia and when we got to the car. It wasn't there." Phoebe says.

"I took it." Dale says.

"What!" The three sisters say.

"Why? How?" Piper says.

"You don't need that book right now, do you?" Dale asks.

Andrea watches the new argument that has formed, curious and mad that Dale is stealing from the sisters. She's scared that they might do something to him. She doesn't want him to die over this.

"We need that book to find Sophia." Phoebe says.

"Rick, Daryl and Prue will find her. Besides its best if we don't have you using magic." Dale says.

"Why?" Paige asks.

"What gives you the right to put your hands on our book." Piper says, pissed now.

"I wanna know how you even were to able to touch it." Phoebe says. "So that we can stop you from touching it the next time." She says, her own anger overriding everyone else's.

"At the CDC, Paige and Phoebe told me what you guys did in your past time as witches and what stuff came after the four of you. Demons, Warlocks, Evil. How do we know by using all this magic, you're not gonna end up attracting all of that to us." Dale says.

"That's not an excuse." Piper says.

"Regardless of how much magic we use, demons will always come after us." Paige says.

"Now give us our book back." Phoebe says.

"The truth is, less guns and we have floating around camp and the less magic being used the better." Shane says, joining in.

"Are you serious?" Piper yells, her anger taking control and she makes the radiator hose that Dale had been working on, blow out of the RV and explode.

"What the hell?" Dale asks.

"Okay, Piper! Calm down! Don't blow up our source of transportation." Phoebe says.

"Where's the book?" Piper says, defensively.

Dale sighs. "I was only trying to keep the group safe." He says.

"By taking our book." Paige says.

"Will you let me finish." Dale says.

"Fine." Phoebe says.

"As I was saying, I only wanted to keep the group safe. I felt like if I destroyed the book, then all of that crap would stop coming after you." Dale says.

"No, you would be taking away our powers and leaving us and the group defensless in case of a demon attack." Piper says.

 **(A/N: Sorry for the interruption, but its about time for one of theses.)**

Its was like fate was waiting for one of the sisters to say the magic words, because three demons appeared and threw energy balls at Piper, Phoebe and Paige.

"Everyone get down!" Paige says, as one demon throws an energy ball at her. Paige orbs out before it hits her and the energy ball hits a tire on a nearby car, causing the tire to blow up. Paige orbs back in and the demon sends another energy ball at her. "Energy ball." Paige sticks her hand up and calls for it. She then sends it back to the demon and vanquishes him.

Piper and Phoebe are dealing with the two remaining demons, while Paige makes sure everyone else is okay. One demon sends an energy ball to Phoebe who levitates and the energy ball is blown up by Piper, who quickly dives out of the way of another energy ball from the other demon. Piper throws her hands up and blows up the demon who targeted her. Phoebe kicks the demon she fighting with in the chest and he sent flying back into an old rusted car. The demon shakes his head and looks up at the sisters and shimmers out.

"Damn it." Piper says.

"Something tells me, this isn't the last time we'll see him." Paige says.

"I thought demons weren't around anymore, or techinally speaking I thought the Source stopped sending demons after us." Phoebe says.

"I guess not. We'll have to vanquish him, you know." Piper says.

"Yeah, we will. But not right now." Paige says.

"Oh God, they're back." Glenn says, leaving his spot.

Rick, Prue and Daryl walk up to the side railing of the highway.

"You didn't find her?" Carol asks, looking like she was faint.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick says.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol says.

Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Lori, Carl, Dale, Shane, T-Dog and Andrea all come over to where Carol is.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl says.

"Plus the fact that we could run into walkers, and possibly demons." Prue says.

"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol says, looking as if she were about to have a breakdown.

"Believe me I know this is hard." Prue says.

"You could've done something with you're magical powers and then she wouldn't be out there in the first place." Carol says.

Prue looks away, as if she had just realized that.

"Okay look, I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick says.

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl says.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. Prue and I have asked him to oversee this." Rick says.

"Piper? Phoebe? Paige? Have either of you tried scrying for her or calling for her?" Prue asks.

"We couldn't. We were gonna check the book, but Dale hid it from us." Phoebe says.

"He did what?" Prue asks.

"Never mind that Prue, the fact is scrying won't work as easily as it would. Number one, she's not a witch. And two, we'd need something of hers." Paige says.

"And calling for her with a spell wouldn't work, because no matter how we modify the spell, its blood calling blood. Carol isn't a witch so it would be a lot harder to summon Sophia since we're not related to her by blood." Piper says.

"Is that blood?" Carol asks, breathing heavily.

"We took down a walker." Rick says.

"Walker? Oh my God." Carol says.

"Carol, there's nothing to worry about, so don't panic." Prue says.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick says.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asks.

"Unless..." Phoebe says, being cut off by Daryl.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl says, cutting Phoebe off.

Carol walks over to the railing and sits down. Lori and Phoebe come and sit beside her. "Oh God. How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?" She says to Rick, angrily.

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick says and squats down in front of Carol.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane says.

"Carol, at least Sophia is alive out there." Phoebe says, putting her hand on Carol's shoulder, but is sucked into a premonition.

 _Premonition. Someone is walking out of a building. The group stands there looking ar who's coming out. There are some new people standing nearby. Everyone's faces are grim. The group's faces become more saddened as they see the person emerge from the building. Rick comes up and puts a gun to the person heads and shoots. The bullet sound ends the premonition._

"Phoebe, what wrong?" Paige asks.

"Nothing, just a cramp. That's all." Phoebe says.

"Are you sure it wasn't a...you know what?" Piper asks.

"No, no. Just a cramp." Phoebe says.

Prue eyes her suspiciously, as if she knew Phoebe was lying.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child." Carol says, crying.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick says.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane says.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol says, still crying.

Rick gets up and walks off. There is a silence among the group. Andrea walks over to Carol and take Phoebe's spot beside her.

The next day, Rick tosses the arsenal Carl found on the hood of a car. "Everybody takes a weapon." He says.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asks, starting get irritated.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane says.

Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige grab a weapon from the arsenal.

"Its best if we take one, in case so we don't drain to much power." Prue says.

"I agree." Piper says. "Remember the CDC?"

"Yeah. Ooh hey this one looks nice." Phoebe says, picking up a hatchet.

"Okay, we should be set." Paige says.

"Look, it's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea says.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Shane says.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Daryl says.

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick says and walks over to Dale.

"Why can't we just scry for her the old-fashioned way. Or Paige you could orb to her." Phoebe says.

"Well, Sophia's not a witch, so it would be a lot harder. Especially without something of hers." Piper says.

"And I don't know where to orb too." Paige says.

Phoebe frowns. "What's the point in having powers if we can't use them to find Sophia."

"Phoebe you're gonna have to stay focused or we're gonna have to leave you to work through your issues." Shane says.

"Listen, having magic and not being able to use it at a time like this is a question my sisters ask everyday, so if you can't..." Phoebe says, but cuts herself off. "You know what there's no use arguing with you. Its you who always ends up winning anyway." She says and walks off to her sisters.

"Whatever, now everybody assemble your packs." Shane says.

"Dale, keep on those repairs. We've got to get this R.V. ready to move." Rick says.

"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back." Dale says.

"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone." Rick says.

"I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible." Carl says.

Rick groans and looks to his wife. "Your call. I can't always be the bad guy." Lori says.

"Well, he has all of you to look after him. I'd say he's in good hands." Dale says.

"Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions." Rick says and puts a hand on Carl's shoulder. Rick, Lori, and Carl walk over to where everyone is gathered, waiting out Andrea and Dale's argument.

"Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position." Dale says, beggingly.

"I'm not going out there without my gun. I'll even say please." Andrea says.

"I'm doing this for you." Dale says.

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop. What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?" Andrea asks.

That statement causes several of the group members to look over, including the sisters.

"Any idea how long this is gonna last?" Paige asks.

"Well, it better not be long or we'll lose daylight." Piper says.

"Should we do something?" Paige asks.

"No, let them argue it out, they need too." Phoebe says. "Trust me when I say they need too."

"I swear this gets annoying." Prue says.

"I second that." Piper says.

Phoebe and Paige nod at those statements. The sisters continue to watch.

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now." Dale says.

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay." Andrea says.

"You chose suicide." Dale says.

"So what's that to you? You barely know me." Andrea says.

"I know Amy's death devastated you." Dale says.

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?" Andrea says.

"I saved your life." Dale says.

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?" Andrea asks.

The group continues at the argument. Looking a little annoyed and irritated. Some look on with sadness and grief.

"Maybe just a little gratitude." Dale says.

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale." Andre says.

"But-" Dale says, being cut off by Andrea.

"But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?" Andrea says, cutting Dale off.

"I don't know what to say." Dale says.

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." Andrea says.

A litter later the group is trekking through the woods. They come across a tent.

"She could be in there." Shane says.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl says.

"Let's just hope its Sophia okay?" Prue says.

"Yeah, we need to be focusing on Sophia, now what could in the little tent of horrors." Piper says.

"Do you have to make jokes?" Prue asks.

"Oh Prue, lighten up a little, would ya?" Paige says.

"Okay, excuse me Paige for focusing on finding Sophia, instead of cracking jokes and letting my guard down where a walker could have the advantage to take a bite out of me at any second." Prue snaps.

"Okay, jeez, sorry." Paige says, frowning.

"Okay no more fighting. Carol. Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." Rick says, leading Carol up to the tent.

The rest of the group follows behind them, slowly.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy." Carol says.

Daryl unzips the tent door slowly. Rick, Shane, and Prue walk up to the tent door as well. All four of them begin coughing and gagging. Daryl walks in the tent to find a corpse of a man sitting in a chair with his blasted off. Daryl see a gun in the corpse's hand, he grabs and checks to see how many bullets are in it. Daryl then stuff the gun into his back waistband.

"Daryl? Daryl?" Carol says.

Daryl comes out of the tent. "It ain't her."

"What's in there?" Andrea asks.

"Yeah, judging by your faces a second ago, it couldn't have been nice." Phoebe says.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl says.

Somewhere in the distance church bells begin ringing.

"Church bells?" Piper asks.

Rick points in a direction and the group begins running off in the direction. The church bells stop ringing and the group stops running.

"What direction?" Shane asks.

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick says.

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here." Shane says.

"Yeah, its like Dale said back in Atlanta when the alarm on Glenn's car was going off. How it would be hard for the walkers to pinpoint a location. This is the same, except we're the trying to pinpoint the source." Phoebe says.

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too." Carol says.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn says.

"Glenn's right, there definitely has to be someone there." Prue says.

"Or signaling they found her." Andrea says.

"She could be ringing them herself." Rick says.

The group emerges into a cemetery, the sisters take off ahead of the group. With Piper leading.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick." Shane says.

The group begins to run across the cemetery trying to catch up the sisters.

"Piper this church doesn't have a steeple." Paige says.

Piper continues running farther ahead, desperately.

"Piper! Wait up." Phoebe says.

"Piper!" Prue says.

The group continue in pursuit of the sisters. They all get to the doors of the church. Rick motions for everyone to be quiet and then opens the door. Three walkers turn around from where they are sitting and see their new meal. The walkers stand up and Lori hands Rick a machete-looking weapon. Rick then walks over to the walker on the left and slams the blade of the machete into the walker's head. Shane walks up to the male walker on the right and stabs the walker straight through the head. Daryl walks over to lady walker and makes kissing noises at her, gaining her attention. Daryl then hits the walker across the head with another machete-looking weapon and she falls to the ground, dead. Rick and Shane finish beating the heads of the other two walkers up.

"Sophia!" Rick yells.

"Sophia!" Prue yells, as well.

"Yo, J.C., you taking requests?" Daryl asks, the statue of Jesus hanging from a cross.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane says.

The church bells begin ringing again. The group rushes outside, with Daryl pushing his way through first. They rush around the side of the church to see it on a timer. Glenn goes to cut it off, but Piper stops him.

"No, let me." Piper says.

"Okay." Glenn says, confused.

Piper tosses her hands up and blows up the timer, shutting the bells off.

"Oh." Glenn says and nods.

Piper gives a little smile and nods back.

"A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl says.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol says.

Lori pulls Shane aside and they start talking. Everyone else heads back inside the church except for a few that decide to keep look out. Andrea stays at the side, eavesdropping in on Lori and Shane.

Back inside the church Carol is talking to the Jesus statue.

"Father, forgive me. I don't deserve your mercy. I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and you provided. I prayed for Ed to be punished for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul. I prayed you'd put a stop to it, give me a chance to raise her right, help her not make my mistakes. She's so fearful. She's so young in her way." Carol says.

The group members inside, including all four sisters are listening to what Carol is saying.

"She hasn't had a chance. Praying for Ed's death was a sin. Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe, alive and safe. Please, lord. Punish me however you want, but show mercy on her." Carol says.

Piper and Paige walk out of the church.

"You know this reminds me of a couple years ago, when we first got our powers." Piper says.\

"What do you mean?" Paige asks.

"I saw this documentary on TV about this witch who tried to go into a church but was struck by lightening before she could go in, because she was evil." Piper says.

"What happened then?" Paige asks.

"Well, I decided to test that theory and when I put one foot in the church..." Piper says.

"Yeah?" Paige asks.

"Nothing happened. I wasn't evil. I was good and I still am." Piper says.

"Seriously?" Paige says.

Piper nods and smiles at her.

"Lame. I was guessing that you were struck by lightening and became 'Piper the Superwitch' but seeing as today you aren't so...yeah." Paige says.

"I wish." Piper says.

They both laugh and link arms and continuing walking to where the group is gathering.

Shane walks over to Rick. "Got to move here, man. These people are spent. There's only so many hours of daylight left. We still got a long way back." Shane says.

"I can't stop yet." Rick says.

"We still got a lot of ground to cover, whole other side of the Creek Bed. So we search that on the way back." Shane says.

"She would have heard those church bells. She could be nearby." Rick says.

"She could be a lot of things." Shane says.

"I can't go back. Her being out here is my fault." Rick says.

"That's great. Now they got you doubting yourself, huh?" Shane asks.

"What about you? You doubt me?" Rick asks his best friend.

"Hey, we can assign all kinds of blame." Shane says.

"This means something, finding her." Rick says.

"Oh man." Shane says, looking towards the ground.

"It would be the miracle we need. We can't give up." Rick says.

Shane sighs and pats Rick on the shoulder. He then walks over to the rest of the group. "Mmm. Ahem. Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane says.

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl says.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane says.

"Okay, well I'm not letting you two go along without magical backup." Prue says.

"I'll go too, that way in case you get into trouble I can orb you guys out." Paige says.

Shane and Rick nod at both women. "Yeah you'll need Prue she's the strongest, Phoebe and I can hang back so the rest of the group has some magical back up." Piper says and Phoebe nods with Piper's statement.

"I want to stay too. I'm her friend." Carl says.

Rick and Shane look at each other. This causes Prue and Paige to look at them.

"Just be careful, okay?" Lori says to her son.

"I will." Carl says.

"When did you start growing up?" Lori asks her son. She then hugs and kisses him on his head.

Rick walks over to Lori and they kiss and then they hug. "I'll be along soon enough." Rick says. He pulls a gun out his holster and gives it to Lori. "Here, take this. Remember how to use it?" Rick asks.

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Lori says, shaking her head.

Daryl walks over to Lori and hands her a gun. "Here, got a spare. Take it." He says to Lori, who in return takes the gun. Daryl nods at Rick and Andrea sighs.

The griup then begins to separate and go different ways.

Rick walks over to Shane. "Give me a minute?" Rick asks.

"Yeah. Come on." Shane says, putting his hand on Carl's head. Prue and Paige follow behind them.

Rick goes in the church and talks to the Jesus statue. "I don't know if you're looking at me with what?" He sighs. "Sadness? Scorn? Pity? Love?" Rick sighs again. "Maybe it's just indifference. I guess you already know I'm not much of a believer. I guess I just chose to put my faith elsewhere. My family, mostly. My friends. My job. The thing is, we- I could use a little something to help keep us going. Some kind of... acknowledgment. Some indication I'm doing the right thing. You don't know how hard that is to know. Well, maybe you do." Rick says and gets up to walk out the door, but stops and turns around. He walks back to the Jesus statue, but gets closer this time. "Hey look, I don't need all the answers. Just a little nudge. A sign. Any sign will do." Rick is done talking to the Jesus statue and walks out of the church and down the steps.

"Get what you needed?" Shane asks.

"Guess I'll find out." Rick says. Prue and Paige stare at him.

In another part of the woods. The other half of the group are trekking back to the highway.

"So this is it? This the whole plan?" Carol asks and sits down on an old, fallen tree.

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl says.

"Rick is wanting to look around a little more back there to see if Sophia was nearby, since she could've heard the bells." Piper says.

"Which is a good plan, since he is looking for Sophia." Phoebe says.

"But see we're carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun." Andrea says and then looks to Lori.

"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me. All of you. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori says and then take a sip from her water bottle.

"I'm gonna have to agree with Lori on this one." Phoebe says.

"Phoebe..." Piper says.

"No Piper, everything things she said is right. I'm sorry but I have to agree with her." Phoebe says.

Piper sighs. "Okay, you do what you want." She says. "I don't want to argue with you."

Andrea hands the gun back to Lori. Lori takes it. "We should keep moving." Andrea says.

Lori, Daryl, Andrea, Glenn, Carol, Piper, and Phoebe press on through the woods.

Over in another part of the woods. Rick, Shane, Carl, Prue and Paige are walking when some branches snap. Rick halts his small group. He then points in a direction and the five of them begin walking fowards. A deer emerges into the clearing. Rick, Carl, Prue and Paige smile. Shane gets ready to aim and shoot the deer.

Rick calls quietly out to him. "Shane." Shane looks back at Rick who shakes his head He then nods his head at Carl who starts to approach the deer. Paige joins him and he looks up at her and she smiles and they both continue foward to the deer. They trek to the deer slowly with smiles on their faces. Rick, Shane and Prue look on in awe. Carl and Paige continue walking slowly foward. A soft snap that comes from underneath Carl's feet, causes the deer to look in Carl and Paige's direction. Carl and Piage are halfway from the deer when a gunshot is heard. The deer falls to the ground and so does Paige.

Paige is lying on the ground, eyes closed and blood coming out of her stomach from the gunshot wound.

"Oh no. No. No, no, no, no!" Rick screams.

"PAIGE! No, no, no. Oh my god!" Prue says.

Rick, Shane, and Prue run over to Paige. Carl gets back from where he tripped when the gunshot sounded. He looks at Paige, eyes filled with horror and fear.

Rick and Prue hover over Paige. Prue has her hand on Paige's chest feeling for a heartbeat while Rick is checking her pulse.

 **TO BE CONTINUED!**

 **STAY TUNED FOR BLOODLETTING!**

 **Some notes:**

 **Having Paige get shot at the end was collussus96's idea which I was totally onboard with. Plus its also the start to a warp in the storyline as someone won't be dying when they're meant to. But instead will take someone else's spot in death, keeping them alive longer. :O WHO'S NOT GONNA DIE WHEN THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO, FIND OUT SOON! ;-)**

 **That's all I can think to put right now. Oh wait...I'm really sorry for the long wait. School has been crazy with lots of homework. And most of my freetime has been taken away. Like I said I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry for the wait. But here it is finally!**

 **Oh did you notice that I added a little Supernatural to the chapter. It turns out Dean and Sam used two bullets on themselves. I'm so evil! xD Welp, I'll catch ya later! :D**


	9. Bloodletting

**A/N: Hey guys mdaCHARMED14 here. I'm so sorry for the long long wait, I know I should update more often but first it was my hands that got scraped then I got a cold and hoarse voice, then I started Scream TV Series Rewrite, then this past Thursday (Nov.10) I fell on the risers in Chorus when we were dancing. What happened was, when I went to spin around I missed the riser I was on and fell on to the one below it, landed on my hands. However I didn't break either one of them (thank god!), but I hurt my leg this time. I didn't land on it, but when I fell, my right leg when straight up and out forward and I'm guessing I possibly tore a muscle or ligament but as I'm told from someone with experience that torn ligaments hurt worse than breaking a leg. So I'm guessing I tore a muscle but it hurts when I bend my leg back and I also walk with a limp right now. I should mention that the pain when bending comes from my knee, not just my leg. Get this, last year (first semester, _2ND PERIOD)_ I fell off the bleachers in PE when I climbed up them to get a ball down while they were still pushed in. And I broke a bone in my wrist/hand area. Funny, because the incident with my leg is only about two months behind the incident with my hand last year. But anyways I feel like you guys should know what happened. Oh my birthday was on the 9th, it was awesome. I got a Michonne figurine from my dad which was super cool. Yeah anyway that's what's been going on lately and we'll get right into the chapter.**

 ***See end of chapter for notes***

At the manor in San Francisco, past Prue, past Piper and past Phoebe were walking down the stairs from the attic.

"Okay, Piper, I can't be late getting to the office today. I have a radio interview with those morning guys, Pip and Skeeter." Phoebe says.

"That's Skip and Peter." The three of them walk into the foyer. "Could you forget about your advice column for two seconds?" Piper says.

"Yeah, Phoebe, you need to relax a little, you've been working so much and we know why." Prue says.

"Don't you think I would relax if I could. And Prue I don't know what you're talking about." Phoebe says.

"Come on Phoebe, you can't say that Cole is behind the reason of you working so much lately." Prue says.

"Its like you're trying to avoid the fact that he's gone." Piper says.

"And you're avoiding us, your sisters Piper, me and Paige." Prue says.

"Okay, its hard for me to accept that he's gone. I may have wanted him gone, but I still loved him. He could've changed for us, for me, for good." Phoebe says.

"If that were true, then he wouldn't have became the Source of All Evil." Prue says, sternly. "We wouldn't have vanquished him if he could've changed."

"Why can't you guys be proud of what I'm doing. I'm helping people and you know I love doing it." Phoebe says, frowning. "Demon activity has been light, so it's a good time to get ahead." She says.

"We know that, but you could at least find time to spend with your sisters." Piper says.

"I know, but you know how important my job is to me." Phoebe says, lightly smiling.

"We know Phoebe and we could never forget. But we would like to see you more than we do now." Prue says.

"I know and I'll try and make some time, but I can't promise anything." Phoebe says. "I also can't believe you guys didn't notice my billboards down town."

"Oh, honey, of course we noticed them. You can see them from a passing 747." Piper says.

They laugh.

"We would've told you how proud we are of you, but you never slow down to give us a chance." Prue says.

"And we are proud of you Phoebe, we're actually happy for you. Its great to see you doing what you have gotta do and being happy at the same time, regarding the past events. But we just want some time to spend with you as well." Piper says.

"Well, you know, nothing perks up a girl's career like sending her husband straight to hell." Phoebe says. "Even if it was hard doing it."

"Uh, honey, I know your work is very important to you but guess what? Prue, Paige and I miss you." Piper says.

"Aw, I know." Phoebe says.

"Yeah, so how about you take a couple of minutes to be our sister, to be there for us." Prue says.

"What she said." Piper says.

"Oh my god, you are so right. I'm so sorry. Okay, what do you need?" Phoebe says.

"An opinion. Uh, We were thinking…" Piper says as past Paige orbs in and interrupts her.

"Positions! Bogey in three, two, one…" Paige says.

Suddenly, a demon wearing no shirt and a black and white mask appears. He blows a dart at Paige with a blowgun and she ducks. The dart hits a potted plant and the plant shrinks inside the pot. Piper, Phoebe, and Prue gasp. Piper blows up the demon and vanquishes him.

"So much for the theory that Borneo demons are impervious to magical powers. I can't wait to tell the local witch doctors." Paige says.

"Okay, excuse me, what happened to light demon activity?" Piper says.

"Oh, honey, it was just one." Prue says.

Past Leo orbs in. "We have a problem." He says with a stern look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Paige asks.

"Well something's going on in Atlanta, the Elders have been alerted of tremendous amounts of innocents dying, coming back to life,and then attacking other people." Leo says, frowning.

"What? You mean like zombies?" Prue asks.

"Yeah, they believe the "zombie apocalypse" may be beginning." Leo says, frowning.

"Great, this is perfect. We vanquish the Source, three times and now the apocalypse is on the verge of happening." Phoebe says, getting angry. "Why can't we ever get a break?"

"Is there anything else we should know?" Piper asks.

"Yeah, they want you to go and check it out. To see if you can stop it from spreading out of the city. The Elders are also taking all whitelighters from Earth and going under lockdown. That includes me." Leo says.

"What?! Why? They can't do that." Piper says, her anger lashing out.

"Several witches that were living in Atlanta have gone missing, recently. And their whitelighters have disappeared as well." Leo says.

"Oh my god." Prue says.

"Yeah. Its pretty serious. You're also going to have to travel by plane." Leo says.

"Why can't we just orb?" Paige asks.

"Well, you don't know what Atlanta looks like. So you don't know, what you'll end up orbing into and then magic will be exposed as people will see you orb in." Leo says.

"Great, just great." Phoebe says.

Leo hears a jingling. "They're calling me, I have to go." He says, frowning.

"Wait! Leo, will we see you again?" Piper asks, worried.

"Yes, when it all blows over and if you four make it out of Atlanta alive." Leo says, before orbing out.

"Okay. Not a problem as long as we don't get eaten." Piper screams, while looking up.

"This is ridiculous." Phoebe says.

"Okay, how is it possible that zombies are real?" Paige asks.

"Well, magic exists. So do witches, demons, banshees, vampires, genies, fairies..." Prue says, naming things they've fought over the years and looking at Paige. "So you tell me, after everything we've fought and seen. The possibility of the dead coming back isn't shocking." She says, giving a sarcastic smile. "I mean remember the alchemist that we vanquished when Piper was possessed?" She asks.

"So?" Phoebe asks.

"So? Alchemists can bring back the dead. This just could be another demon to vanquish." Prue says.

"But Leo said innocents dying. That doesn't sound like an alchemist killing people just to bring them back to life." Piper says.

"Maybe he's working with someone." Paige says.

"Why go to the trouble though? Why not just reanimate corpses of a cemetery? Prue, I don't feel like its an ordinary demon to vanquish. I'm worried what the Elders are saying could be true." Piper says.

All of a sudden a crash was heard outside.

"What was that?" Phoebe asks.

"I don't know." Prue asks.

The four sisters run to the living room window and see three zombies attacking a crashed car.

"Oh my god." Paige says.

"It looks like its more than just Atlanta." Piper says.

Somewhere in King's County, Georgia. A past Shane Walsh pulls up to a school in police cruiser. He gets out and a past Lori Grimes walks up to him. He has a sad and stern look on his face.

"Is he alive?" Past Lori asks. The school bell rings. "How did it happen?"

"It was a chase. There two suspects in a car, but an unknown third was in the car. Someone messed up, I messed up. I'm sorry, I didn't see him in time. Its my fault Lori." Past Shane says.

"No, I don't believe that." Lori says.

Past Carl Grimes walks out of the building. They see him and he waves at them. Shane and Lori wave back.

Lori puts her hand over her chest. "How do I tell my son his father's been shot?" She says.

"Look, you're not alone..." Shane says, but Lori cuts him off. She nods her head at him as in saying thanks for the suggestion.

Lori walks over to Carl. He hands her some papers and she puts them under her arm. She gets down both knees and holds his hands. Shane watches and squats down on the ground. He sees Lori's mouth moving and Carl burst into tears. Lori hugs Carl and they both cry.

 _Present Day._

Rick is running through a field carrying an unconscious Paige in his arms. She was light enough for him to carry luckily. Prue and Carl were right on his heels. Prue had tears running down her face. Carl had dry tear stains on his face, from where he was crying a few minutes ago. Rick, however, was in disarray. He was crying and he was grunting because Paige had almost fallen from his arms. Shane was trailing behind the three of them with some man named Otis. Apparently he was out hunting for that deer and didn't see Paige when he shot.

"Come on. Hey, you move, dickhead!" Shane yells, grabbing Otis' arm and pushing the hunter ahead. "Come on, get us there!"

"How far? How far?" Rick screams.

"Answer him, NOW!" Prue screams in anger.

"Another half mile, that way! Hershel, talk to Hershel- He'll help your friend." Otis says, running out of breath from running. Rick, Prue, and Carl run ahead. Otis falls to his knees and Shane grabs his arm and pulls him back up.

"I'm sorry." Otis says.

"Let's go- Come on!" Shane says.

Rick grunts as he runs with Paige in his arms. Rick, Prue and Carl see a white farmhouse ahead.

"There!" Prue says and points to the house. The three of them continue running towards the house.

On the porch of the house, a girl is standing on watch. She sees man carrying a woman in his arms, with another woman and a little boy following him. She screams towards the door. "Dad!"

An older man walks out the door. Following him is a blonde woman who looks a bit younger than the man. A teenage boy with a bat and a blonde teenage girl follow the man and woman out the door, along with the brunette who screamed for the man.

"Was she bit?" The older man asks.

"Shot, by your man." Rick says.

"Otis?" The blonde woman asks. Following the old man off the porch.

"He said to find Hershel. Is that you? Help us- Help my sister." Prue says, tears still flowing.

"Get her inside- Inside!" Hershel says.

They all walk in the house. "Patricia, I need my full kit. Maggie-" Hershel says.

"Yeah?" Maggie asks.

"Painkillers, coagulates- Grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." Hershel says. He leads Rick, Prue and Carl to a room. "In here." He says and throws the blanket of the bed to the side.

Rick lays Paige down on the bed. "Pillowcase." Hershel says.

"Is-is she alive?" Rick asks.

"Pillowcase, quick." Hershel says.

"Is-is she alive?" Prue asks as Rick grabs the pillowcase. Beth, Maggie and Patrica are at the foot of the bed laying out supplies.

"Fold it- Make a pad." Hershel says and Rick does what Hershel says. "Put pressure on the wound." Hershel says. Rick puts the folded pillowcase on Paige's wound and applies the pressure. Patricia hands Hershel, his stethoscope. Hershel puts it on and puts the end part over Paige's heart. Prue is standing back behind them with Carl who has his arms wrapped around Prue. She is hugging him back while he cries. Prue however, like a river gone dry, has no more tears flowing. She just stares at the injured Paige on the bed.

"I've got a heartbeat- It's faint." Hershel says.

"I got it- Step back." Patricia says to Rick, who backs up some and lets Patricia take control of holding the pillowcase.

"Maggie, IV." Hershel says, taking his stethoscope off.

"We need some space." Maggie says to Rick.

"Your names?" Hershel asks.

"R-Rick." Rick stutters.

"Rick?" Hershel asks.

"I'm-I'm-I'm Rick. And over there is Prue, Paige's sister." Rick says.

"Rick, Prue, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room. Now." Hershel says , loud enough for Prue to hear.

Rick, Prue and Carl leave the room.

"Move!" Shane yells running towards the house with Otis. Rick, Prue, and Carl hear Shane and look out a window and see him running with Otis. Rick and Carl walk out the door and onto the porch, while Prue stays inside to keep an eye on Paige. Shane and Otis walk up to the porch.

"She's alive- She still alive?" Otis asks.

Rick had a sad but stern loom on his face. He wipes hand across his forehead trying to clear some sweat away. Rick doesn't know he wiped Paige's blood on his forehead. However Shane can clearly sees it.

"Okay. It's okay." Shane says and wipes the blood from Rick's face. "You got blood, man. Okay." Shane says.

Rick holds onto the rag. "I'll take it from you. Where is she- Is she okay?" Shane asks. Rick turns around and opens the door. Shane, Carl, and Otis follow him inside the house. They walk into the room where Paige is. Prue had already walked back in the room.

"You know her blood type?" Hershel asks, still holding the pillowcase over Paige's wound.

"A-positive." Prue says. "But I'm B-negative."

"I'm A-positive." Rick says.

"That's fortunate. Don't wander far- I'm gonna need you." Hershel says to Rick. "What happened?" He asks Otis.

"I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through." Otis says.

"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved her life, but it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out... And I'm countin' six." Hershel says.

Otis walks over to Patricia. "I never saw her. Not until she was on the ground." Patricia pulls him into a hug.

"Piper and Phoebe don't know?" Prue asks, oblivious to the fact that her other sisters weren't there.

"No, they-" Shane says, walking over to Prue and is cut off by the witch.

"My sisters don't know- My sisters don't know." Prue says, starting to cry again. Carl passes Shane and holds her hand.

"Oh god, Lori doesn't know either. My wife doesn't know." Rick says, covering his face with a hand. Shane walks back over to Rick and whispers in his ear and then puts an arm around him.

Back out in the woods. Daryl, Lori, Glenn, Carol, Andrea, Piper and Phoebe are trudging their back to the highway. Lori turns around and looks out into the forested landscape.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asks, making everyone turn around and look at Lori.

"It was a gunshot." Lori says.

"We all heard it." Daryl says and Lori turns to look at him, along with the others.

"Why one- Why just one gunshot?" Lori asks.

"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl says.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane or Prue and Paige for that matter. They'd do it quietly, especially two of them are witches." Lori says.

"Lori's right. Something doesn't feel right." Piper says.

Phoebe was debating whether or not she should spill her premonition.

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asks.

"There's nothing we can do about it, anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl says.

"So, what do we do?" Lori asks.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway." Daryl says.

"Daryl's right, there's nothing we can do to help or find them, we don't know where they are. We need to get back to the RV. T-Dog needs help." Piper says.

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea says and looks at Lori. The group marches on. Andrea hangs back and walks over to Carol.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel." Andrea says, looking at the grey-haired woman.

Glenn, Lori, Piper, Phoebe and Paige look back at the two women.

"I suppose you do- Thank you." Carol says. She turns to look at the group ahead. "The thought of her, out here by herself... It's the not knowing that's killin' me." She turns to look at Andrea. "I just keep hopin' and prayin' she doesn't wind up like Amy." She says.

Andrea cocks her head a bit and glares at Carol.

"Oh, God! That's the worst thing I ever said." Carol says.

Andrea shakes her head at Carol. "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth." The blonde says.

Daryl walks over to the two women. "I'll tell ya what it's worth- Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord." He says.

"He's right, we'll find her. Even if we have to use every ounce of magic we have." Phoebe says, a stern look on her face. "We can't and we won't give up. That's also not worth a damn thing."

Back at the farm house. Prue is sitting in a chair in the foyer.

"You okay?" Someone asks.

Prue looks up to see that Beth had walked up to her. "Yeah-I'm fine." She says.

"Can I get you anything? Some water?-" Beth asks, but gets interrupted by Prue.

"I'm good. But thanks for the offer. I appreciate it." Prue says.

"No problem." Beth says and Prue looks down. "Look my father is going to everything he can. He'll save her." She says, looking at Prue with a comforting expression.

"Thanks. You're father seems to be a good man." Prue says, smiling lightly.

"Well, that's because he is a good man. And with Patricia by his side, they'll both be able to do what needs to be done with the bullet. Your sister is in good hands." Beth says and smiles. Prue smiles back.

Rick and Shane walk in from the porch. Maggie walks out of the room Paige is in. "Rick... She needs blood." The brunette woman says. Rick and Prue follow Maggie into the room. Shane follows behind them.

Paige is crying.

"You, hold her down." Hershel says to Shane, who runs over and begins holding Paige down.

"I got her." Shane says.

"Prue!" Paige cries out.

Prue begins crying.

Paige screams as Hershel is working on her.

"Almost there." Hershel says.

Paige screams again.

"Stop- You're killin' her!" Prue cries out. "Stop!"

"Prue, do you want Her to live?" Hershel asks.

Paige is still crying.

"She needs blood." Patricia says.

"Do it now!" Shane yells.

Patricia finishes wiping Rick's arm with alcohol pad. She then sticks in the needle and draws blood from Rick's arm.

Paige stops crying.

"Wait-wait, hey." Shane says.

"She just passed out." Hershel says, still prodding at the shot wound with the medical tweezers. Hershel then pulls a bullet fragment out. "One down... Five to go." He says, holding it up and putting in a metal bowl that Patricia sat beside him.

Some air is pumping and then hisses. Hershel takes off his stethoscope as Patricia messes with the tube in Paige's arm. "Pressure's stable." Hershel says.

"Piper and Phoebe need to be here. They don't even know what's goin' on." Prue says.

"I got-I gotta go find them, bring them back. Along with Lori." Rick says.

"You can't do that." Hershel says.

"They're her sisters! They need to know what's happened. They're sister is lying here, shot." Prue says.

"And she's going to need more blood. He can't go more than 50 feet from this bed." Hershel says as Rick begins to stand up with Patricia helping him.

"Hey, hey. Come on." Shane says.

"I'm all right. I'm all right-" Rick says.

"We got him." Shane says. They walk into the sitting room. Maggie and Otis are already sitting in a chair out there. "She's stable, for now." Shane says. Rick sits down in a chair, so does Prue.

"Piper and Phoebe need to be here. They need to know." Prue says.

"Lori has to be here, too Shane- You know how she is." Rick says.

"Okay, I get that. I'm gonna handle it... But both of you gotta handle your end." Shane says.

"Our-our end?" Prue asks.

"Your ends are being here, for Paige, for Carl. Rick you can't just leave him with everything that's going on. Even if she didn't need your blood to survive, there is no way I'd ever let you walk out that door. Man, I-I'd break your legs if you tried. I mean, you know that, right?" Shane says to Rick. "If something happened to her and you weren't here... If-if she slipped away while you were gone, you would never forgive yourself for that, and neither would Piper or Phoebe." He says to Prue.

"You're right." Rick says.

"I'll have to agree with Rick on that." Prue says.

"When was I ever wrong?" Shane asks and laughs. "You know, when... When you were in that hospital, the one you were never supposed to leave, man... You should've seen Lori. She was like- The strength of that woman... You can't imagine it. See-see, that's what you gotta have now. I mean, Carl, he needs that from you. And Paige needs you're strength Prue. So, you wire yourselves tight, my friends. Hmm? You hear? You've got the hard part. You just leave the rest to me, okay?" Shane asks.

"All right." Rick says.

"All right." Prue says.

The door opens.

"She's out of danger for the moment, but I need to remove those remaining fragments." Hershel says.

"How? You saw how she was." Prue says.

"I know, and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others." Hershel says.

"Oh, man ." Prue says.

"- There's more." Hershel says.

"Tell me." Prue says.

"Her belly's distended, her pressure's dropping, which means there's internal bleeding. A fragment must have nicked one of the blood vessels. I have to open her up, find the bleeder and stitch it. And she can't move while I'm in there. I mean, at all. If she reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and she'll be dead in minutes. To even try this, I have to put her under. But if I do, she won't be able to breathe on her own. Same bad results." Hershel says.

"What'll it take?" Prue asks.

"You need a respirator." Otis says. "What else?" He asks.

"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures." Hershel says.

"If you had all that, you could save her?" Rick asks.

"If I had all that, I could try." Hershel says.

"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago. The high school." Otis says.

"That's what I was thinkin'. They set up a FEMA shelter there. They would have everything we need." Hershel says.

"Place was overrun last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it- Maybe it's better now." Otis says.

"I said, leave the rest to me. Is it too late to take that back?" Shane asks.

"I hate you goin' alone. Come on. Doc, why don't you do me a list, draw me a map." Shane says.

"You won't need a map- I'll take you there. Ain't but five miles." Otis says.

"Otis, no." Patricia says from behind Hershel.

"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone. I'll be all right." Otis says.

"Are you sure about this?" Shane asks.

"Do you even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?" Otis asks.

"Come to think, no." Shane says.

"I've been a volunteer EMT. I do." Otis says.

"No, wait. Shane, I can't let you do this. I'm gonna go with Otis." Prue says.

"What? No you're staying here, you need to be here for Paige." Shane says.

"Shane, you need to be here for Rick and Carl. Especially for Rick, you're the only one that can keep him from running off. Besides you know that I would be of more help to Otis." Prue asks.

Shane sighs. "Fine. Go, but if something happens to Paige and you're not here for her. Don't expect me to come to the rescue and bring you back."

"Wait, how would you be more helpful to Otis?" Patricia asks, worried for her husband's life.

"I'm a witch. So is Paige, Piper and Phoebe. The four of us are good witches. We vanquish demons and save innocents. I will be able to protect Otis and get the stuff we need more than Shane could." Prue says.

"You're a what?" Hershel asks.

"I'll explain when Otis and I get back. Now, we can talk about this 'till next Sunday, or we could just go do it real quick." Prue says.

"I'll take right quick." Otis says.

"I should thank you." Prue says.

"Wait 'till that sister of yours is up and around, then we'll talk. I'll gather some things." Otis says.

"Where are they- Your sisters?" Maggie asks, looking at Prue. "And your wife?" She asks looking to Rick.

Back in the woods, the group is still trudging through the tall woodland forest.

"We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it." Daryl says.

"Daryl's right. The sun's starting to set." Piper says.

"Let's head back." Lori says.

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asks.

"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." Phoebe says, putting a hand on Carol's shoulder.

Daryl whistles at them and they move on.

Back on the farm. Otis, Prue, Shane, Rick, Patricia, and Hershel are walking out of the house and to Otis' truck.

"Just get what you need and get out of there. You stay strong, all right?" Rick says to Prue.

Patricia walks over to Otis and they hug.

"Yeah, and you better make it back to Paige." Shane says.

"Oh, I will." Prue says.

Rick walks over to Otis and holds out his Colt Python. Otis looks at it and takes it.

"That's a fine weapon, Rick. I'll bring it back in good shape." Otis says.

Otis walks over to the back of the truck and puts the Colt in the bag. He grabs his rifle and joins Prue in the truck. Prue looks at Otis' hunting rifle and he looks down at it too.

"Only one I got." Otis says to the witch.

"Man, this turned into one strange day." Prue says.

"Didn't it, though?" Otis asks, starting the truck and driving off.

Rick, Hershel, and Patricia watch as Otis and Prue drive away. Patricia shakes her head and walks back into the house.

"Let's check on your friend." Hershel says to Rick.

Dale and T-Dog had just finished their conversation when they heard an engine rumble. T-Dog was the first to hear it.

"Hey Dale?" T-Dog asks.

Dale was inside the RV. "Yeah?" Dale asks.

"Do you hear that?" T-Dog asks.

"Hear what?" Dale asks. The car engine can be heard closer now, but the car turns off.

"You telling me you didn't hear that car engine noise?" T-Dog asks.

"I ain't heard nothing. We've got to get that fever down." Dale says, walking back over to T-Dog with a wet rag.

"I may be in this condition, but I know what I heard and I definitely ain't crazy." T-Dog says, taking the wet rag and putting it over his face. Neither of them heard the footsteps getting closer to them.

"Hello? Can you guys help us?" A voice asks. That's when Dale and T-Dog look for the source of the voice. They see an African-American woman with light brown hair to her shoulders, wearing an orange tank-top and khaki capris. A little boy stood beside her. Looked to be no older than eleven or twelve, wearing a plaid button up shirt and jeans. The woman and child looked to be completely harmless and helpless. But Dale grabbed his shotgun and points it in their direction, just to be safe. He also moves to stand in front of the injured T-Dog.

"Who are you?" Dale asks.

"Please me and my son, we need help. We're not from around here and we have no idea where to go." The woman says.

"You didn't answer my question." Dale says.

"I'm sorry, my name's Sheila Morris and this is my son DJ. We're from San Francisco." Sheila says.

"My name's Dale and this T-Dog." Dale says, pointing to himself and T-Dog. "Is it just the two of you?" He asks.

"Yes, its just me and my son." Sheila says.

"Wait, did you just say San Francisco?" T-Dog asks.

"Yes why?" Sheila asks.

"You wouldn't happen to know Prue, Piper, Phoebe Halliwell and Paige Matthews, would you?" T-Dog asks.

"Yes, they're friends of ours. Do you know them? Know where they are?" Sheila asks, a smile growing on her face at the mention of her now used to be lost friends.

"Yeah, they're with our group. However they're not here at the moment. They are out with the rest of the group looking for a lost group member." Dale says.

"I can't believe it, Daryl was right." Sheila says, covering her mouth with her hand as a tear tries to form.

"Daryl? As in Daryl Dixon?" T-Dog asks.

"Daryl Dixon? Who's that? I'm talking about my husband, Daryl _Morris_. He told me that, even though the sisters were sent to Atlanta to try and fix this mess. If things were to go wrong in San Francisco, then take DJ and find the sisters. That they were out there somewhere, even if Atlanta ended up being a lost cause." Sheila says, trying to hold back tears that wanted to flow.

"My dad always believed in them, he knew them for a long time." DJ says to Dale and T-Dog. "Mom, I miss dad." He says, looking up to his mother.

Sheila looked to her son. "I know sweetie, I miss him too. But your father would want us to keep going." Sheila says.

DJ nods his head. Dale and T-Dog watch the mother and son. Sympathy and pity in their eyes.

"Look you can stay with our group, since you're friends with Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you again." Dale says.

"Oh thank you so much. Is there anything I can do to repay you?" Sheila asks.

"Well do you have any knowledge in the medical field?" Dale asks.

"Umm…no, not much. I'm sorry. I'm just a mother and a housewife. I only know the basics." Sheila says.

Dale nods his head.

Back in the woods. The group is still trudging back to the highway.

"How much farther?" Phoebe asks.

"Not much... Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies." Daryl says.

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea says.

As the group continues on. Lori, Carol, Glenn, Piper, Phoebe and Daryl march ahead and Andrea isn't paying attention and loses the rest of the group. As she walks on runs into a spider web. "Oh... Oh! As the crow flies, my ass." She says and sees movement beside her, assuming its one of the group members she keeps walking. What she doesn't know is that it was a walker.

The walker makes a low growl and then groans. Andrea turns around and screams as the walker advances on her. She stabs the walker in the chest but it does no use and it pushes her to the ground. The group hears her scream and begin to panic.

"Andrea?" Lori calls out.

"Oh my god!" Piper says. "Andrea, where are you?" Piper calls out.

Piper, Phoebe, Daryl, Glenn, Lori and Carol run off to find Andrea.

The walker continues to groan and try and munch on Andrea's face as she struggles to throw it off.

"No-no— Oh, no!" Andrea screams out as she knows this might be her last breath unless a miracle were to happen. The group continues running and everything begins to feel like its in slow motion for Andrea. She turns her head and sees a woman on a horse coming to her rescue. The woman has a baseball bat held out and hits the walker as she rides by, sending the walker flying to the side.

The woman makes the come to a sudden stop and calls out to Andrea. "You Piper or Phoebe Halliwell? Or Lori Grimes?" The brunette cowgirl asks.

"I'm Lori." Lori says.

"And I'm Piper." Piper says.

"I'm Phoebe." Phoebe says.

"Rick and Prue sent me- You've got to come now." The woman says in an urgent tone.

"What?" Lori asks.

"What's going on?" Phoebe asks.

"There's been an accident- Paige's been shot. She's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick and Prue need you- Just come!" The woman says.

"What?! Paige's been shot?" Piper asks in shock and disbelief. Panic started to rise in her voice, her fear of losing a sister was beginning to surface. Phoebe was starting to panic as well. Lori takes her backpack and lets it fall to the ground.

"Phoebe, you go with her. I'll stay here, so they have some magical backup." Piper says.

"What? Piper?" Phoebe asks.

"Just go! You don't have the greatest active power in case something were to happen. Just go, I'll be there with you soon." Piper says, pushing Phoebe to the horse and taking Phoebe's backpack.

"Okay." Phoebe says, tears starting to form.

As Lori and Phoebe get up on the horse. Daryl begins to protest. "Whoa-whoa-whoa! We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse."

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" The brunette woman asks.

"Uh-huh." Glenn says.

"Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox- Name's Greene- Hi-yah!" The woman says, taking off with Lori and Phoebe. The remaining group members watch on. The walker that had attacked Andrea, sits up. Piper doesn't hesitate and tosses her hands up and blows up the walker. She turns and walks off in the direction of the highway. Andrea gets to her feet and stands beside Glenn. She, Daryl, Glenn and Carol look at Piper and then at each other. Daryl shrugs his shoulders and the three of them follow the witch.

Not awhile later. Piper, Daryl, Glenn, Carol, and Andrea arrive back at the highway. Dale was attending to T-Dog while Sheila and DJ were looking through some of the cars for supplies for the group. Dale sees them and calls out. "They're back." He, T-Dog, Sheila, and DJ gather around.

Piper is the last to climb over the railing. When she does, some familiar faces catch her eye. She gasps and a hand goes to her mouth. "Sheila?!" She says and tears start to form again.

"Oh my god! Piper!?" Sheila says and the run to each other and they embrace.

"You're alive?" Piper asks, shocked to see them again and surprised Sheila and DJ had found them.

"We traveled to Atlanta to find you, Daryl said that you, Prue, Phoebe, and Paige would be out there. Somewhere, no matter how bad this mess is." Sheila says, tears flowing.

"Where is Daryl?" Piper asks, curious as to why Daryl wasn't with her. And then it her, like a bag of bricks. "Oh, no. Oh, Sheila. Is he?" Piper asks, trying to hold back her tears.

Sheila nods. "He went down in the city, doing his job. He was trying to protect the city. He told me to take DJ and get out of the city, that he knew things were gonna get bad and he wanted us to be safe. I begged him to come along, but he refused. He wanted to go down, doing what he loved best. He was hero. He saved so many people, many were able to get away due to his brave actions. And I wasn't completely okay with him doing it, but I agreed and let him do what he thought was best and it was. He saved so many innocents." She says.

Piper is crying now, she knew Daryl was a hero, but had no idea he was that brave. She had only saw the brave side of him when it came to magic, she never saw him in action on the police field. She and her sisters would be vanquishing a demon almost everyday of their lives. They never had time to spend with normal lives. "Oh, Sheila. I'm so sorry, I had no idea." She say, hugging Sheila and DJ, who was crying a bit too.

"Its okay, everything happens for a reason. You and your sisters taught us that." Sheila says, a hand on Piper's shoulder.

Piper nods at her.

"Speaking of your sisters, where are Prue, Phoebe, and Paige?" She asks the witch.

"Prue and Paige went with Rick— our leader, Shane— his best friend, and Carl—Rick's son to find a little girl that ran off when a herd passed by. The rest of us heard a gunshot, but we didn't know what happened so we were walking back and Andrea was attacked by a walker and this woman arrived on a horse and saved her. She said that Paige had been shot and that she needed Lori— Rick's wife and Phoebe and I to go with her. However I made Phoebe go, so I could stay with the group for magical backup. And now here we are.

"Shot? What do ya mean shot?" Dale asks.

"We don't know, Dale. We weren't there. All we know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori and Phoebe." Glenn says.

"You let her?" Dale asks.

"Climbed down out of my asshole, man. Rick and Prue sent her. She knew Lori's name and Piper's and Phoebe's." Daryl says.

"She knew Prue's name and Paige's and Rick's as well." Carol says.

I heard screams- That was Andrea?" Dale asks, as Andrea walks by him and heads to the RV.

"She got attacked by a walker. It was a close call." Glenn says.

"Andrea, are you all right?" Dale calls out to Andrea. But she ignores him and enters the RV, for which she slams the door.

Back at the farm. Rick and Hershel on the porch talking.

"This place is beautiful." Rick says, looking around the farm and the scenery surrounding it.

"Been in my family 160 years." Hershel says, also looking out and over the farm.

"I can't believe how serene it is. How untouched... You're lucky." Rick says and glances at Hershel.

"We weren't completely unscathed. We lost friends, neighbors. The epidemic took my wife, my stepson." Hershel says, looking in Rick's direction.

"I'm sorry." Rick says.

"My daughters were spared. I'm grateful to God for that. These people here, all we've got left is each other. Just hoping we can ride it out in peace till there's a cure." Hershel says.

"We were at the CDC... It's-it's gone now. There is no cure." Rick says.

"I don't believe it." Hershel says and chuckles. "When aids came along, everyone panicked. One boy in town came down with it, and some parents pulled their children from school, so they didn't have to sit in the same room." The older man says.

"This is a whole other thing." Rick says, looking at Hershel again.

"That's what we always say— "This one's different." Hershel says, looking back at Rick.

"Well, this one is." Rick says.

"Mankind's been fightin' plagues from the start. We get our behinds kicked for a while, then, we bounce back. It's nature correcting herself, restoring some balance." Hershel says, trying to peacefully have Rick see things from a different perspective.

"I wish I could believe that." Rick says.

Hershel and Rick look ahead when the hooves of a horse, galloping. They see Maggie had returned with Lori and Phoebe. However Piper wasn't with them. Rick runs off the porch and goes to Lori, who hops off the horse and embraces her husband. Phoebe didn't see Prue anywhere, but she thought that maybe she was inside with Paige. However she begins breaking down when she see Rick's expression. He gives her a quick hug and leads her inside with Lori behind them.

When Phoebe enters the room, her face goes blank. Her mouth is open wide in shock and fear. Tears streaming from her eyes. She walks over to the bed and lays down beside Paige. Phoebe props her head up with her elbows and grabs Paige's hand with her other free hand.

"Paige! Paige, look I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. My baby sister. It's okay, everything's going to be fine. You will make it through this, I promise. I'm here Paige. Your sister Phoebe is here, don't worry you will be just fine." Phoebe says, sobbing over her unconscious sister.

Phoebe looks to Rick, her eyes in worry. "Rick? Where's Prue?" She asks.

"Umm..She went..she went with Otis—Hershel's hunter, to go to the local high school for medical supplies so Hershel can get the remaining bullet fragments out." Rick says.

"You just let her go?" Phoebe asks, a bit of venom seeking into her voice.

"Hey, look. I'm sorry. Shane and I, we tried to talk her out of it, but she refused." Rick says.

Phoebe begins crying even more.

Lori looks to her husband. "Where's Carl?"

"He's in the living room. He's resting right now. With everything that's going on, I thought it felt right to let him rest some." Rick says.

"Okay, that's good." Lori says, nodding at her husband. "What about Shane?" Lori asks. She may not love Shane back the he wanted her too and they may not be on good terms, but she still cared for his well-being. She couldn't lose him, he meant a lot to her. Maybe not in a romantic way, but as a friend.

"He said, he wanted some time alone, to think."

"Okay, that's good." Lori says, nodding at her husband.

Later that evening, Patricia had just finished putting a bandage on Paige and Rick's arm. Hershel had his stethoscope in and listening to Paige's heartbeat.

"Slow… slow. How many transfusions?" Lori asks.

"Two- Only two." Rick says.

"You know Carl wanted to do the same for you when you were in the hospital. I had to talk him out of it." Lori says and Rick chuckles.

Rick, Lori and Phoebe walk into the dining room. Hershel hands Rick, a glass of orange juice and Rick takes a swallow from the glass.

"Thank you." Rick says, but Hershel motions for Rick to keep drinking the juice.

Phoebe lightly leans on one of the dining chairs. She grips the headrest part of the chair with her hands. "Okay, so I understand, when Prue gets back with this other man—" She says and Hershel cuts in.

"Otis." Hershel says, interrupting Phoebe.

"Otis. The idiot who shot my sister." Phoebe says.

"Ma'am, it was an accident." Hershel says, trying to calm her.

"I'll take that under advisement later. For now, he's the idiot who shot my sister." Phoebe says.

"Phoebe, they're doing everything they can to make it right." Rick says.

"Okay, as soon as they get back you can perform this surgery?" Phoebe asks.

"I'll certainly do my best." Hershel says.

"Okay... I mean, you've done this procedure before?" Phoebe says.

"Well, yes, in a sense." Hershel says.

"In a sense?" Phoebe asks.

"Phoebe, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." Lori says.

"No, I understand that. But, I mean, you're a doctor, right?" Phoebe asks Hershel.

"Yes, ma'am. Of course. A vet." Hershel says.

"A veteran- A combat medic?" Phoebe asks.

"A veterinarian." Hershel says.

"And you've done this surgery before on what? Cows... pigs?" Phoebe asks.

"I- I have- I have to sit." Rick stutters out before falling onto of the chairs in a sitting position. Lori rushes over to him.

"Completely in over your head, aren't you?" Phoebe asks.

"Ma'am, aren't we all?" Hershel asks.

Over at the high school. Prue and Otis are walking quietly up to the parking lot where the medical setup is.

"Shh-shh-shh!" Prue says.

Prue and Otis silently make their way behind cars, trying and hoping to avoid making any noise that would draw attention to them. Both of them, stop moving behind a police car.

"Okay, let's take a look." Prue whispers. Otis nods at her.

They both slowly slide up, just enough to see what they're dealing with. Prue and Otis look over the car and see that the parking lot is filled with walkers. The number of walkers in the parking lot is well over the amount from the highway herd. If possible the size added to the amount that are inside the school, could equal the amount of walkers from Atlanta. Both Prue and Otis knew that this trip wouldn't be easy. And these walkers proves their hypothesis.

Prue and Otis duck down quickly. Both of them panting, in fright and worry.

"You see that big mobile medical trailer across the way?" Otis asks the witch. Prue looks back up and sees the trailer.

"That's where we gotta get to?" Prue asks.

"Yeah." Otis says.

"Then let's do it." Prue says and looks back up and squints her eyes. Several walkers go flying. The other walkers not targeted yet, take notice to their pals being thrown around. However, they can''t find the cause of it though. Otis watches in astonishment.

Back on the highway. The highway group, now including Sheila and DJ are gathered around discussing what they should do now.

"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol says.

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale says.

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen." Carol says.

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea says.

"Carol and Andrea are right. We can't just leave Sophia like that, we have to do something. Anything." Piper says.

"Okay. We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV." Daryl says.

"If the RV is stayin', I am too." Dale says.

"Thank you. Thank you both." Carol says.

"I'm in." Andrea says, nodding her head.

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm- " Glenn says, but is interrupted by Dale.

"Not you, Glenn- You're going. That goes for you too Piper, you have a sister to get to. And take Sheila and DJ, I'm sure Phoebe would like to see them again, so would Prue." Dale says. "Take-take Carol's cherokee."

"Me? Why me?" Glenn asks.

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on- But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke. And Piper needs to be with her sisters." Dale says.

Daryl walks over to his brother's motorcycle. The group look at him as he does. "Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." He says and walks back over to the group. He throws the rag at Dale and sets a back of medicine and drugs on the hood of a car. "Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, x- Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers. Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion." Daryl says and tosses a bottle of painkillers to Glenn. He throws another bottle to Dale as well. He then walks back to Merle's bike and puts the the stuff away.

Back at the high school, Prue finishes clearing a path of the walkers, most of them have been splattered and only one walks here and there.

"Okay we should be able to get into the trailer now." Prue says. "Come on."

Prue and Otis sprint into the trailer. They both begin rummaging through the trailer's contents.

Back on the farm, everyone is in Paige's room, except for Maggie, Beth, Jimmy, Shane and Carl, who is still out like a light. Hershel takes his stethoscope off.

"Pressure's dropping again. We can't wait much longer." Hershel says to Phoebe.

"Take some more- Whatever she needs. Then I'm gonna go." Rick says.

"Go- Go where?" Lori asks.

"He said five miles. They should be long back by now. Something's gone wrong." Rick says.

"Are you insane? You're not goin' after them." Lori says.

"Rick, listen to your wife." Hershel says.

"If they got into trouble—" Rick says, but is interrupted by Hershel.

"You're in no condition to do anything about it. You've given too much blood. You're barely on your feet. You wouldn't make it across the yard." Hershel says.

"If something's happened, I have to go." Rick says, pleading with Lori.

"No, your place is here. If Prue said she'll be back, she'll be back. She's like you that way." Phoebe says, finally stepping in.

"I can't just sit here." Rick says.

"That's exactly what you do! If you need to pray or cry or tell God he's cruel, you go right ahead, but you're not leavin', Rick. Carl needs you. Paige needs you." Lori says. "And I can't do this by myself. Not this one. I can't... I can't." She says, softly this time.

Back at the high school, in the medical trailer. Prue and Otis are still rummaging through everything. Prue is grabbing some metal container things, which appear to be mini oxygen tanks*. She stuffs them into the bag.

"Oh, here. Endotracheal intubator, baby, for my new respirator." Otis says.

"Atta boy! Come on." Prue says.

Both of them, finish grabbing everything they need and head out of the trailer. There were ten walkers in the lot which Prue sends flying. She and Otis then sprint out of the parking lot and back to the truck.

They arrived back at the truck which was only a few yards away. They loaded everything into the truck and then loaded themselves in. However, neither of them saw the herd of walkers that was following them. The walkers begin banging and clanging on the truck, trying to get at their prey. Otis puts the key into the ignition and cranks the truck. Unfortunately the truck doesn't start.

"Come on! Damn it." Otis says.

"Otis, come on, hurry." Prue says.

"I'm trying, don't worry. We didn't come out here all the way just to die now." Otis says.

The walkers continue banging on the truck. A crack starts to form in Prue's window.

"Oh god, no-no-no-no-no! Hurry!" Prue says.

"Come on! Start!" Otis says, and cranks the truck one last time and it finally starts. "Thank god."

"Lets get out here." Prue says.

Otis didn't need to be told twice. He put the truck and reverse and backed out of the mass of walkers. He then put the truck into drive and sped off, away from the walkers and their almost untimely death.

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**

 **Stay tuned for Save The Charmed One! (Get it, save the _Charmed One_ , as in _Paige_ , uhh—never mind)**

 **Notes:**

 **1\. Yes, Sheila and Daryl Jr. have arrived in the story. Sadly Daryl isn't with them. I know, you must hate me for not bringing him in, but if I would've then we'd have two Daryl's which would get super confusing.**

 **2\. Otis is the one who didn't die, because I need him for a plan I have got going on. And trust me when I say this change to the plot I'm doing is pretty big.**

 **3\. I had to make Prue the one to go with Otis, because of the plot change and also since Paige was shot, it would make sense for Prue to go and not Shane.**

 **4\. I know we didn't hear much from the sisters this episode, but don't worry. This episode/chapter was one of those that didn't have much going on.**

 **5\. Sorry for the long wait, but I explained in the Author's Note, why it was taking so long. It was also explained in the 'UPDATE - ANNOUNCEMENT' chapter thing (I don't remember what I called it) about the long wait as well. I'm totally sorry for that.**


	10. Update For All Stories!

Don't worry guys I am writing the next chapter...but it gets a little hard with studying for exams, but I am trying to update when I can. My schedule for writing chapters and updating should return normal somewhere around the end of January. Its just with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then Exams; my schedule goes out of whack. So hang in there guys and this story and others will be updated soon, I promise.


	11. -Notice- 01-22-17

\- Notice -

As of January 22, 2017, I am officially moving to Wattpad. Wattpad is another site where I can upload and write fics. I will no longer be updating the stories I have on , I will be continuing these stories but on Wattpad. I know this may come as a surprise and a disappointment, but I can't manage two sites at once. My Wattpad user is **mdaCHARMED2016** , I have more stories started on there that you guys can read; if you'd like. I think its best moving to Wattpad, because how its much more easier to upload and access my works without the Doc Manager. I also won't have to re-upload files to the doc manager anymore. I love and will continue to use it to read fics by other people, but myself will no longer be in use on the site. I am not taking my account down, that way you guys can continue be able to find my username on Wattpad. The stories will stay up too, just no longer being updated. My Wattpad is more up-to-date with what I'm writing and I'll be able to manage them all instead of going back and forth in between sites. I'm also not deteling my account, because I have messages in my inbox from my Charming Dead idea helper and I can't lose those messages. I hope this switch brings no inconviences and I look forward to seeing you guys continue supporting me over on Wattpad. I am also looking forward to this new change and the ability to update more often as I've been on Wattpad. Thank you guys for the time in connecting to all of you and hit me up on Wattpad, **mdaCHARMED2016**. See you guys in the long run.

Grimes&Dixons, mdaCHARMED14!


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